Pakistan skipper Sarfraz Ahmed on Thursday urged his fellow teammates to play "without fear" during their tour of South Africa -- a country where they have won only two Tests during their past five tours.
Apple has announced a big expansion of its US operations, at the heart of which is a new $1 billion campus in Austin, its third in the city. Apple’s approach comes in marked contrast to Amazon’s recent search for the location of its second headquarters, which over the course of a year saw numerous cities publicly compete to offer the biggest incentives for the e-commerce giant. New York’s decision to offer around $2 billion in incentives to Amazon has drawn particularly fierce and ongoing criticism.
Along with the 6,200 employees that Apple already has in the city, its new 133-acre development is expected to make it the largest private employer in Austin. Apple expects the new campus to accommodate 5,000 employees at first, though it...
A month ago, when Amazon announced that it would build regional offices in New York and Virginia at great expense to the taxpayers there, I wrote that it had misunderstood the moment:
Perhaps the furor over Amazon’s regional offices will blow over. But it’s hard not to feel today as if the company misread the room — overestimating the public’s appetite for a billion-dollar giveaway to one of the world’s biggest companies, and underestimating the public’s ability to raise hell on- and offline. Amazon may yet feel that pain, in the long run.
Today, Amazon met the room: 150 protesters who showed up to the first New York City Council hearing about the plan. According to reports from the scene, demonstrators’ concerns start with the $3...
Australia skipper Tim Paine came to the defence of under-fire Mitchell Starc and Aaron Finch as they were included in an unchanged team for the second India Test despite below-par performances in the defeat in Adelaide.
A month ago, when Amazon announced that it would build regional offices in New York and Virginia at great expense to the taxpayers there, I wrote that it had misunderstood the moment:
Perhaps the furor over Amazon’s regional offices will blow over. But it’s hard not to feel today as if the company misread the room — overestimating the public’s appetite for a billion-dollar giveaway to one of the world’s biggest companies, and underestimating the public’s ability to raise hell on- and offline. Amazon may yet feel that pain, in the long run.
Today, Amazon met the room: 150 protesters who showed up to the first New York City Council hearing about the plan. According to reports from the scene, demonstrators’ concerns start with the $3...
On this day four years ago, Virat Kohli's bow as India Test captain ended in a disappointing loss as they suffered a 48-run loss at Adelaide.
A year after Amazon announced it would resume selling Google Chromecasts, the streaming pucks are finally available to buy from its store, reports Android Police. Originally, Amazon had said that selling a streaming device that didn’t support its own Prime Video streaming service would cause “customer confusion,” and it also banned sales of the Apple TV for the same reason. Last December, Amazon finally released an Amazon Prime Video app on the Apple TV, but its mobile app continued to lack Chromecast support. Despite this disparity, Amazon later announced that both the Apple TV and Chromecast would be returning to its store, although it’s taken a year for the one without Amazon Prime Video to actually do so.
Although this particular...
A year after Amazon announced it would resume selling Google Chromecasts, the streaming pucks are finally available to buy from its store, reports Android Police. Originally, Amazon had said that selling a streaming device that didn’t support its own Prime Video streaming service would cause “customer confusion,” and it also banned sales of the Apple TV for the same reason. Last December, Amazon finally released an Amazon Prime Video app on the Apple TV, but its mobile app continued to lack Chromecast support. Despite this disparity, Amazon later announced that both the Apple TV and Chromecast would be returning to its store, although it’s taken a year for the one without Amazon Prime Video to actually do so.
Although this particular...
Web browser Opera has launched a built-in cryptocurrency wallet on its Android app, the company announced today at a blockchain event in London. The wallet will first support ethereum, with support for other coins likely to come later. Ether investors using Opera would potentially be able to more easily access their tokens using the feature.
Users can use the cryptocurrency wallet by first downloading Opera on Android (it’s not available on iOS) and then purchasing some ether tokens to store inside. From there, users can access a selection of mini apps inside the browser.
Opera first announced it was testing such a feature back in July. By now, cryptocurrency prices have taken a large fall as compared to the price spikes at the end of...
Trainer Battles, the long-awaited PvP mode for Pokémon Go, are now available. Niantic started rolling them out for level 40 players a couple of hours ago, but they quickly became accessible for players as low as level 10 as well, which will be the permanent minimum required level for the mode.
For the most part, you’ll need to be in the same location as your rival in order to battle them, either through your friends list or a QR code-scanning feature. You can remotely battle players with whom you’ve achieved Best or Ultra Friends status, however, as well as practicing against AI-controlled team leaders.
Battling against human players can earn you in-game rewards including the currently much sought-after Sinnoh Stone, which lets you...
CES may not be for another few weeks, but Samsung is already getting the ball rolling on new products, starting with an updated version of the Notebook 9 Pen laptop — which now comes in a new, 15-inch size, in addition to the old 13-inch form factor. Previously, only the regular Notebook 9 model offered the larger size, but now it’s coming to the convertible 2-in-1 model, too.
One of the big new features on the updated Notebook 9 Pen is an improved S Pen. Just like its smartphone cousin, the Note 9, the new S Pen for the Notebook 9 Pen now offers improved latency (Samsung says its up to two times faster). Samsung also now offers multiple user replaceable tips for the S Pen, allowing you to customize different drawing styles. (There’s...
From time to time the entire technology press corps gets together on Twitter, spends several hours live-tweeting the same event, and then writes a series of blog posts about how nothing important happened. This event is known as a Congressional hearing, and today we witnessed our final one of the year.
After months of polite deferrals, Sundar Pichai finally went before Congress on Tuesday, and over the course of three and a half hours, said as little as possible. The hearing before the House Judiciary Committee was defined, as had been the Facebook hearings before it, by the widespread befuddlement of our lawmakers.
There was, for example, the question from Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) about why a picture of Donald Trump comes up when you...
Amazon today announced the launch of a new variety of its cashier-less Go store that’s much smaller than a standard one. The company is referring to it as a small-format Go store, and it’s a freestanding construction with its own enclosed ceiling, which is where it places a majority of the cameras and sensors used to track shoppers and determine when an item has been taken off the shelf.
Amazon says this version, located on the sixth floor of the Macy’s building at 300 Pine Street in downtown Seattle, measures about 450 square feet and serves mainly pre-made breakfast, lunch, and dinner items, as well as beverages and snacks.
A typical Go store is much larger, usually serving a wider variety of pre-made food, as well as household...
The Free Music Archive — a free-to-use collection of music that’s shared and curated by artists — was supposed to close last month, following a funding shortage. Instead, the Archive will live on: it’s been bought by the camera and gear rental marketplace KitSplit.
“Many of us at KitSplit have admired and used FMA over the years,” writes Kristina Budelis, a co-founder of KitSplit in an emailed statement. “FMA has helped tens of thousands of creatives make their projects. Together with FMA, we’ll be able to serve creators + our community even more powerfully.” And there are more overlaps between KitSplit and the FMA than just the fact that making successful productions requires both audio and video; one employee of KitSplit had...
The New York Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement over changes to the agency’s Risk Classification Assessment (RCA) software, which is used when ICE detains someone for deportation proceedings. The tool provides an algorithm-based recommendation on whether an immigrant should be detained in jail until they can see a judge — or whether they can instead be released on bond in the interim.
But the NYCLU claims that in 2017, ICE altered the RCA so that it overwhelmingly started to favor detention over release. It became the default, guaranteed recommendation even for people with little or no criminal history. “The program now automatically recommends that all immigrants be detained,” the...
One of the more underrated perks of the “peak TV” era is that because there’s so much worth watching, no two television devotees will forge the same path through the mountains of programming. Below is a list of 20 outstanding series and miniseries that aired in 2018. These are well-crafted and entertaining shows, highly recommended and worthy of just about anyone’s time. Some of the names will be familiar; some may be surprising. Taken as a whole, this list is intended to present just one way of looking at what makes TV great. But that perspective is, inevitably, limited.
Here, for example, is just a partial list of shows and specials that could’ve easily landed in this Top 20: America to Me, Barry, Bob’s Burgers, Brockmire, Brooklyn...
One day after Google CEO Sundar Pichai was questioned on data privacy during a House hearing, a group of 15 Democratic senators has proposed a new bill for protecting personal information online.
The Data Care Act, proposed by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) and more than a dozen co-sponsors, including Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), would create new rules around how companies that collect user data can handle that information.
Under the act, data collectors would be required to “reasonably secure” identifying information, to not use that information in a harmful way, and to give notice to consumers about breaches of sensitive information. The requirement extends to third parties, if the data collectors share or sell that data...
Had the curator not helpfully drawn white lines for the two return creases, it would have been impossible to spot the pitch at the Perth Stadium. The lush green outfield melded seamlessly with the 22-yard strip on which the game would be played and once the first ball is bowled you can be sure it will be anything but seamless.
Ponting gave his complete backing to Justin Langer, calling him "best qualified" for the job but said that lack of international competitive coaching opportunities is affecting on-field opportunities.
Web browser Opera has launched a built-in cryptocurrency wallet on its Android app, the company announced today at a blockchain event in London. The wallet will first support ethereum, with support for other coins likely to come later. Ether investors using Opera would potentially be able to more easily access their tokens using the feature.
Users can use the cryptocurrency wallet by first downloading Opera on Android (it’s not available on iOS) and then purchasing some ether tokens to store inside. From there, users can access a selection of mini apps inside the browser.
Opera first announced it was testing such a feature back in July. By now, cryptocurrency prices have taken a large fall as compared to the price spikes at the end of...
India vs Australia Live Streaming: Most Indian teams of the past would be wary of a green top but the Virat Kohli-led side will see it as an opportunity to bulldoze the Australians when the second Test begins on a pitch offering plenty of pace and bounce at the brand new Optus Stadium on Friday.
A series-leveling win for the West Indies in the second match means both teams go into the final match at Sylhet on Friday with a chance to take home the ODI series.
Trainer Battles, the long-awaited PvP mode for Pokémon Go, are now available. Niantic started rolling them out for level 40 players a couple of hours ago, but they quickly became accessible for players as low as level 10 as well, which will be the permanent minimum required level for the mode.
For the most part, you’ll need to be in the same location as your rival in order to battle them, either through your friends list or a QR code-scanning feature. You can remotely battle players with whom you’ve achieved Best or Ultra Friends status, however, as well as practicing against AI-controlled team leaders.
Battling against human players can earn you in-game rewards including the currently much sought-after Sinnoh Stone, which lets you...
CES may not be for another few weeks, but Samsung is already getting the ball rolling on new products, starting with an updated version of the Notebook 9 Pen laptop — which now comes in a new, 15-inch size, in addition to the old 13-inch form factor. Previously, only the regular Notebook 9 model offered the larger size, but now it’s coming to the convertible 2-in-1 model, too.
One of the big new features on the updated Notebook 9 Pen is an improved S Pen. Just like its smartphone cousin, the Note 9, the new S Pen for the Notebook 9 Pen now offers improved latency (Samsung says its up to two times faster). Samsung also now offers multiple user replaceable tips for the S Pen, allowing you to customize different drawing styles. (There’s...
From time to time the entire technology press corps gets together on Twitter, spends several hours live-tweeting the same event, and then writes a series of blog posts about how nothing important happened. This event is known as a Congressional hearing, and today we witnessed our final one of the year.
After months of polite deferrals, Sundar Pichai finally went before Congress on Tuesday, and over the course of three and a half hours, said as little as possible. The hearing before the House Judiciary Committee was defined, as had been the Facebook hearings before it, by the widespread befuddlement of our lawmakers.
There was, for example, the question from Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) about why a picture of Donald Trump comes up when you...
Amazon today announced the launch of a new variety of its cashier-less Go store that’s much smaller than a standard one. The company is referring to it as a small-format Go store, and it’s a freestanding construction with its own enclosed ceiling, which is where it places a majority of the cameras and sensors used to track shoppers and determine when an item has been taken off the shelf.
Amazon says this version, located on the sixth floor of the Macy’s building at 300 Pine Street in downtown Seattle, measures about 450 square feet and serves mainly pre-made breakfast, lunch, and dinner items, as well as beverages and snacks.
A typical Go store is much larger, usually serving a wider variety of pre-made food, as well as household...
The Free Music Archive — a free-to-use collection of music that’s shared and curated by artists — was supposed to close last month, following a funding shortage. Instead, the Archive will live on: it’s been bought by the camera and gear rental marketplace KitSplit.
“Many of us at KitSplit have admired and used FMA over the years,” writes Kristina Budelis, a co-founder of KitSplit in an emailed statement. “FMA has helped tens of thousands of creatives make their projects. Together with FMA, we’ll be able to serve creators + our community even more powerfully.” And there are more overlaps between KitSplit and the FMA than just the fact that making successful productions requires both audio and video; one employee of KitSplit had...
The New York Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement over changes to the agency’s Risk Classification Assessment (RCA) software, which is used when ICE detains someone for deportation proceedings. The tool provides an algorithm-based recommendation on whether an immigrant should be detained in jail until they can see a judge — or whether they can instead be released on bond in the interim.
But the NYCLU claims that in 2017, ICE altered the RCA so that it overwhelmingly started to favor detention over release. It became the default, guaranteed recommendation even for people with little or no criminal history. “The program now automatically recommends that all immigrants be detained,” the...
One of the more underrated perks of the “peak TV” era is that because there’s so much worth watching, no two television devotees will forge the same path through the mountains of programming. Below is a list of 20 outstanding series and miniseries that aired in 2018. These are well-crafted and entertaining shows, highly recommended and worthy of just about anyone’s time. Some of the names will be familiar; some may be surprising. Taken as a whole, this list is intended to present just one way of looking at what makes TV great. But that perspective is, inevitably, limited.
Here, for example, is just a partial list of shows and specials that could’ve easily landed in this Top 20: America to Me, Barry, Bob’s Burgers, Brockmire, Brooklyn...
One day after Google CEO Sundar Pichai was questioned on data privacy during a House hearing, a group of 15 Democratic senators has proposed a new bill for protecting personal information online.
The Data Care Act, proposed by Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) and more than a dozen co-sponsors, including Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Cory Booker (D-NJ), would create new rules around how companies that collect user data can handle that information.
Under the act, data collectors would be required to “reasonably secure” identifying information, to not use that information in a harmful way, and to give notice to consumers about breaches of sensitive information. The requirement extends to third parties, if the data collectors share or sell that data...
ZeniMax Media and Facebook today settled a long-running legal dispute over the creation of the Oculus Rift VR headset, which ZeniMax claimed was the result of stolen trade secrets (including code and research) shared by ex-ZeniMax employees who had been hired by Oculus.
Among those hires was John Carmack, the well-known co-founder of id Software (which ZeniMax owns) who joined Palmer Luckey, Brendan Iribe, and the rest of the Oculus VR team in 2013 before Facebook bought the VR company for $2 billion. Variety and CNBC reported news of the settlement.
Oculus uses zero lines of code that I wrote while under contract to Zenimax.
— John Carmack (@ID_AA_Carmack) May 1, 2014
ZeniMax pursued litigation against Facebook in 2014 and at one...
A lot of people have become bored with SMS messaging, and the tech industry is very aware of it. While services such as Apple’s iMessage, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp allow you to add photos, GIFs and videos to your messages, they are not universal solutions — for example, you can’t send a WhatsApp message if your correspondent uses Facebook Messenger. The answer — or so Google and other companies are hoping — is Rich Communications Services or RCS.
RCS is a new online protocol that was chosen for adoption by the GSM Association in 2008 and is meant to replace the current texting standard SMS (Short Message Service), which has been around since the 1990s. The GMSA represents a wide variety of organizations in the mobile...
Amazon’s AI voice assistant Alexa has become a household name off lately. This has a lot to do with the Amazon’s integration of its voice assistant across all its smart devices. Amazon Echo devices particularly are known for their Alexa integration and Alexa skills are what make the platform unique and immensely useful. Also Read: Vivo […]
The post Amazon Alexa Skill Blueprints Allow Users To Create Customised Skills Using Templates appeared first on Smartprix Bytes.
2019 will be the year when we get to see the first wave of 5G devices, even if all they actually offer are bragging rights. Eventually, the 5th generation of mobile communication technology is going to open up a lot of new, exciting horizons for humans to explore. With this new generation of devices, we […]
The post What is 5G? Here is What To Expect From The Next Decade of Wireless Communication appeared first on Smartprix Bytes.
Vivo has finally launched their much awaited dual display phone for the Chinese market. This phone is the successor to the Vivo Nex which was released earlier this year. The first edition of the phone saw Vivo implementing a pop-up module for housing the front camera. Building on its foundation of providing users with a […]
The post Vivo Nex Dual Display edition announced: Price and Specifications appeared first on Smartprix Bytes.
Smartphone manufacturers are constantly striving to make their phones faster, or at least more lucrative to gaming enthusiasts. There has been a healthy surge in mobile gaming and mobile applications have grown more demanding in general. In fact, many OEMs are now actively developing phones to serve as mobile PCs by connecting to external monitors. Having […]
The post 5 Best 10GB RAM Phones That You Can Buy appeared first on Smartprix Bytes.
Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers' Association have said that their annual cricket awards event will be renamed as the Australian Cricket Awards from the 2019 edition.
A green Basin Reserve wicket was welcomed by New Zealand's Tim Southee after his recent exertions against Pakistan on dry, low and slow pitches in the United Arab Emirates, but the paceman was quick to point out that looks can often be deceiving.
Australia opener Aaron Finch should be given the time to establish himself as a Test opener, believes Victoria coach Andrew McDonald even as the debate continues over whether he should play at the top of the order.
A test series victory over Australia would remove any doubt about India's status as the best side in the world but it is unlikely to be a cakewalk, according to former England opener Mark Butcher.
Built on the banks of the twisting and turning Swan River, it is ground that was always destined to be after a decade-long debate in West Australia about the need for a new multi-format stadium. It leaves for dead, as far as international cricket is concerned, the once-mighty WACA Ground where the Soviet-style light towers, as iconic as the once lethal pitch, remain as visible as ever from the shiny new replacement. But in the modern era, where fan engagement rules, leaving many patrons roasting on grass banks in the desert-capital contributed to the perception that it was time to move Test cricket elsewhere in a town forever on the make.
On the eve of the second Test against Australia at the new Optus Stadium in Perth, Indian captain Virat Kohli announced their 13-man squad for the match.
As Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood kept ticking the scoreboard with singles, soaking in the warm applause of the crowd, you could see a frustrated Virat Kohli going grimmer with each passing over. Finally, there was jubilation and relief after KL Rahul snapped a catch to get rid of Hazlewood that sealed India’s win. But Adelaide yet again exposed what has become a perennial problem for India – to dismiss the opposition lower-order and tail quickly.
Sometimes, watching Che bat in the middle, it appears there is more than one man who is holding his mind. Articles on him document the work that has gone into making, possibly, the last Test batsman.
A story that could so easily have been “Whatever happened to Tim Paine?” became “How did this happen to Tim Paine?” The answer? Right place, right time, right man.
“ICC is trying to facilitate a dialogue between WADA and the BCCI. There is a willingness on the part of BCCI to resolve the situation with the Indian Olympic Association (IOA)"
In a Test match of fine margins, it was Cheteshwar Pujara’s knocks in both the innings that proved to be the difference.
Stylish batsman VVS Laxman's epic 281 may be part of the cricketing folklore but former India skipper Sourav Ganguly on Wednesday said the knock actually 'saved his career'.
“Once you start researching about horses, it’s not enough. It’s a whole different world out there.”
"The thing for him is since he's arrived on the international scene he's performed wherever he's gone – and he's gone everywhere."