Month: April 2017

Buy And Sell Subscriptions Through Amazon

Posted on by Ben Armytage

Amazon has launched a new ‘Subscribe With Amazon’ service which enables consumers to discover, subscribe and manage a range of digital subscriptions, and enables subscription businesses to reach millions of new customers.

Amazon Packages

What Is It?

Whereas we are likely to have searched for and purchased all manner of digital subscriptions for products / services e.g. streaming services, apps, fitness classes etc. in many different places around the web, ‘Subscribe With Amazon’ groups, categorises and organises all manner of digital subscriptions in one place. Continue reading “Buy And Sell Subscriptions Through Amazon” →

Driverless Cars Being Tested On UK Roads

Posted on by Ben Armytage

Driverless vehicles are here! The ‘Driven’ consortium will begin an information-gathering trial of autonomous vehicles from next week, which will see manned but autonomous vehicles being tested on roads and motorways between London and Oxford. Auto Driverless Tesla

Driven

The 10-member ‘Driven’ consortium of technology firms (which includes Nominet and the Atomic Energy Authority) who are conducting the trials over the next 30 months has AI company Oxbotica’s tech’s expertise and its links with Oxford Robotics Institute (University of Oxford) at its core.

Technical commentators have noted that this is the first time that a company or consortium has attempted driverless tests of this kind and on this scale.

Oxbotica’s Selenium autonomous vehicle control software from the UK will be used to operate the vehicles. Continue reading “Driverless Cars Being Tested On UK Roads” →

Google Translates Business Reviews With AI

Posted on by Ben Armytage

If you’re travelling overseas and you want to find a business, bar, restaurant or shop, you will soon be able to read high quality translations of the reviews that are displayed in Google Search results and Google Maps thanks to an AI upgrade. Google Eyes

What’s The Problem?

If you don’t have much local or prior knowledge about the best shops, businesses and attractions of an overseas town / city that you’ve travelled to for a holiday or business (and if you don’t speak the language) your opportunities and experiences can be limited. Turning to Google to get insider knowledge has, up until now, meant the wasted time and hassle of copying and pasting reviews in piece-by-piece sentences, into translation tools with often confusing results. Continue reading “Google Translates Business Reviews With AI” →

New App Lets You Book Hotels By The Minute

Posted on by Ben Armytage

Hotels and bookings are changing. The new ‘Recharge’ App has launched in the US, which lets users book big city hotel rooms ‘by the minute’. Hotels room

Why Book By The Minute?

The app, developed by two-year old San Francisco-based start-up Recharge is designed to appeal to people who just need a base in the city for a short space of time. These user groups include business people who want to freshen up prior to a meeting, families who are shopping in the city but need a place to relax, or people who need a place to stay between spread-out meetings /appointments on the same day.

The app charges rooms out at anything from 66 cents to $3 a minute, depending on the quality of the hotel. The service offers an affordable, practical and flexible solution to users, and an opportunity for hotels to generate more revenue and gain new customers. Continue reading “New App Lets You Book Hotels By The Minute” →

27 Year Prison Sentence For Hacking. Yet More Kids Lured Into Hacking.

Posted on by Ben Armytage

Hacking is bad kids… Youtube is putting on workshops around the UK to teach 13 to 18-year-olds about issues based around free speech, Internet safety and recognising ‘Fake news’. prison hacking fence

What’s The Problem?

Young people (particularly teenagers) spend the most time online, especially on social media.

The Google-owned video-sharing platform YouTube has faced criticism about not tackling ‘hate speech’ videos and inappropriate material on its website, even to the point where government and media adverts (including those of the BBC and Channel 4) were removed for fear of them being displayed next to such content. Continue reading “27 Year Prison Sentence For Hacking. Yet More Kids Lured Into Hacking.” →

Auto Draw From Google Drawing App With AutoCorrect

Posted on by Ben Armytage

Google has launched Auto Draw, an innovative AI ‘auto correct’ art app that uses predictive and shape recognition technology to help improve and complete drawings with a professional artistic flair. Google Auto Draw Interf IDT

Improves Your Doodles

Using the same technology as its earlier ‘Quick Draw’ experiment which employed AI to guess what a person was drawing, the new AI ‘Auto Draw’ online app allows you to create a doodle which is then improved upon by the app. You can then choose to replace your doodle with the app’s improved version. You can also choose to use your own version of the drawing, choose to use drawings submitted by other artists or even submit your own drawings to Auto Draw. Continue reading “Auto Draw From Google Drawing App With AutoCorrect” →

Scammers Burgling Airbnb Users… Again.

Posted on by Ben Armytage

Scammers have used the stolen account details of Airbnb users to target properties for burglaries. burglar

What Is Airbnb?

An online marketplace that allows people to rent out their properties or spare rooms. Hosts can register on the site, set a price per night for their accommodation (which is typically lower than a hotel price), upload pictures of what’s on offer, and set house rules. Potential guests go to the Airbnb website, select their travel dates, and then pick from a list of options. Guests and hosts write reviews about each other.

Airbnb guests can verify their profiles by submitting identification (such as passport details) to Airbnb and ‘good’ guests with good ratings and reviews are preferred by property owners. Continue reading “Scammers Burgling Airbnb Users… Again.” →

No More Vodafone Roaming Fees In Most of Europe

Posted on by Ben Armytage

Vodafone have announced that they will be scrapping roaming fees for their new customers in most European countries.

Roaming in Britain

What Are Roaming Fees?

Roaming fees / charges are the fees in addition to the usual phone plan charges that smart-phone users have to pay when they use an overseas network to get online while travelling abroad. These charges, enabled via international agreements between mobile operators (typically at higher rates than in the UK) and apply the moment that your phone is detected by the overseas network.

Calls and texts made / sent from your mobile while abroad are also typically more expensive. You can also be charged extra to receive a call or pick up a voicemail message while overseas and, if you pick up voicemail while your phone is registered overseas, you can be charged an overseas rate for the message being left, in addition to being charged to pick the message up. Continue reading “No More Vodafone Roaming Fees In Most of Europe” →

Your Ad Blocker Is Helping Advertisers Target You

Posted on by Ben Armytage

Advertisers are still winning! A French study has shown that even though your ad blocker may be stopping unwanted adverts, it could also be identifying you to advertisers, thus making you more likely to be targeted in future! new-york-advertisers

The Study

A recent online study by French researchers Inrialpes, which builds upon previous EFF research from 2010, has shown that the Browser Extensions (including ad blocker extensions) you have, and “Login-Leak” i.e. details of the (social media) websites that you have logged-in to as identified by your browser, can mean that advertisers can piece together the information to identify you. This could mean that even though (and partly because) you have an ad blocker (extension) in place to protect you from unwanted adverts and slow page downloads, you can be easily and accurately identified by advertisers, which could lead to targeting by them. Continue reading “Your Ad Blocker Is Helping Advertisers Target You” →

Virgin Giving General Public Access To Your WiFi

Posted on by Ben Armytage

After a successful trial last year (and following BT’s lead) Virgin Media is boosting its public Wi-Fi network by making customers’ SuperHub routers double as public Wi-Fi hotspots. Virgin Red Hot Air Balloon

What Is A Wi-Fi Hotspot?

A Wi-Fi Hotspot is a location where wireless access to a network and / or the internet can be gained (via a wireless local area network / WLAN and a router) for mobile devices e.g. laptops, notebooks, and smart-phones. These hotspots are usually in public locations and usually work up to 30 feet or so from the router. Continue reading “Virgin Giving General Public Access To Your WiFi” →