What’s new
Amazon launches Dash instant-order Internet of Things buttons in the UK
The ideea of a Dash button is simple: a physical touch button dedicated to ordering a specific item with just one press. The dinky buttons can be stuck onto a variety of surfaces or hung up to make them conveniently accessible. One Dash Button is setup per specific product and it costs £4.99 but comes with £4.99 credit, so it is effectively free of charge. As Prime customers receive unlimited free next-day delivery, receiving Dash products won’t cost any extra. Dash is setup to avoid duplicate orders, so will only accept the first press. It connects via Wi-Fi through the Amazon Prime app, but once linked will operate independently.
You can read more here.
Google may kill Nexus name for its own branded smartphones
Rumors and FCC filings for HTC and Huawei indicate we will soon see Google Nexus phones announced. However, the latest reports state the Nexus brand will not be used. Android 7.0 Nougat just launched last week for the current Nexus models, but the Nexus 6P and 5x may be the last Nexus branded phones. There are no reports if these new phones will have another name or if they may simply be branded as Google phones.
More info can be found here.
New products
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga
The X1 Yoga 2-in-1 has a Core i7-6500U processor, 8 gigabytes of RAM, a 512GB solid state drive, and a 14-inch QHD touchscreen. There’s even an OLED display option, making the X1 Yoga part of a handful of pioneers finally bringing OLED to the laptop. Base models start around $1,400, and going OLED adds another $125.
You can see a review and read more here.
Logitech unveils ‘Z625 Powerful THX Sound’ 2.1 speakers with optical input
Logitech says “the speaker delivers THX certified audio and 400 Watts Peak power, for fantastic sound that’s perfect for movies and music, but also great to connect to your gaming console for immersive sound with full impact THX audio you can hear and feel. This 2.1 speaker system supports multiple inputs simultaneously, so you can connect up to three compatible sources”. The Z625 Powerful THX Sound 2.1 speakers will cost $169.99.
More info here.
You might want to know about this
SWIFT urges banks to step up security amidst disclosure of more cyber thefts
SWIFT, the global financial messaging system, disclosed new hacking attacks on its member banks as it pressured them to comply with security procedures instituted after February’s high-profile $81 million heist at Bangladesh Bank. In a private letter to clients, SWIFT said that new cyber-theft attempts, some of them successful, have surfaced since June. It did not identify specific victims, but said the banks varied in size and geography and used different methods for accessing SWIFT.
You can read more about it here.
Microsoft’s beta language service gets C# dev kit
Microsoft has pushed out a C# software development kit (SDK) for its in-beta language parsing API, LUIS. LUIS, the Language Understanding Intelligent Service, is another chunk of the chatbot capability Redmond is so keen on. It’s a model-making environment which Microsoft reckons helps developers teach existing apps to understand “book tickets to Paris”, “turn on the lights” and so on. That’s covered by LuisClient: interactions are handled by the “predict” and “reply” functions. Devs can also “create handlers for each intent (as shown in the sample) and setup a router using these handlers in order to have the router handle the responses instead of doing so within the client application” Redmond explains at GitHub.
More info can be found here.
Fun stuff
Zuckerberg wants to demonstrate his AI powered home
Addressing a live Facebook Q&A sesion he said “I hope to have a demo, hopefully next month.” According to Zuckerberg, he credits a lot of the AI’s success to his engineering team at work. He revealed that he is thinking of a simple AI to run his home and workplace like the famous Jarvis character in the Hollywood movie “Iron Man”; “I am going to start by exploring what technology is already out there. Then I’ll start teaching it to understand my voice to control everything in our home: music, lights, temperature and so on. I’ll teach it to let friends in by looking at their faces when they ring the doorbell,”
You can read more here.
