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Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google parent company Alphabet, has made a thinly-veiled attack on Apple Music in a BBC op-ed on artificial intelligence. He described human-curated music selections as a decade out of data and an elitist approach. A decade ago, to launch a digital music service, you probably would have enlisted a handful of elite tastemakers to pick the hottest new music. Today, you’re much better off building a smart system that can learn from the real world – what actual listeners are most likely to like next – and help you predict who and where the next Adele might be … Schmidt said that using AI to do the job was less elitist and more democratic....

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2pOpcR7uf5U] Minecraft Reality: Minecraft developers Mojang officially announced a new augmented reality iOS app yesterday dubbed “Minecraft Reality” allowing players to view their Minecraft creations in the real world. The app was developed by 13th lab with a little help from Mojang using advanced computer vision and augmented reality tech. Users will also be able to save their creations at specific real-world locations for others users to discover: Google Voice version 1....

In many ways, Grey’s Anatomy is a television miracle of sorts. The show has been on the air for fifteen seasons now, with the sixteenth set to premiere soon. It has survived endless major character deaths, feuds between Shonda and the actors, feuds between the actors, and some seriously traumatizing storylines. But still, somehow, it has preserved and managed to keep fans hooked to their screens all this time. Being a fan of Grey’s Anatomy can honestly scar you for life....

As far as unorthodox superheroes go, Peter Quill or better known as Star-Lord is probably the most informal. He wasn’t even initially a superhero, but more like a member of a space raider group who has a loose set of morals and questionable allegiances. All of that changed when he met a ragtag group of loners and stragglers who straightened him up into a hero… of sorts. So now we have the Guardians of the Galaxy with Peter Quill at the helm....

Apple this week officially unveiled its new Apple Watch Series 3, brining a host of changes to the device. Following Apple’s special event, we got the opportunity to go hands-on with some of the announcements. Head below for our look at the new Apple Watch Series 3… Zac dug deep into the new Apple Watch yesterday, noting of the cellular connectivity and performance improvements. As he explained, LTE support doesn’t come at as high of a cost as some people initially thought it would, making it a more viable option for many....

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/276825728?secret_token=s-gMkwg” params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] New episodes of Happy Hour are available every Wednesday. As mentioned, you can download this podcast via iTunes or plug in our RSS feed link into your favorite podcasting app. Note: iTunes (web interface and app) may still be propagating the new episode which could take up to 24 hours. Subscribing to the podcast feed will guarantee the latest episode is downloaded. Hosts:...

With the unique Wizarding World of Harry Potter, British writer J.K. Rowling managed to successfully cement herself as one of the most beloved authors of all time. The amount of research and creativity that went into the series is mind-boggling, which explains why, over 20 years since the first book was released, the Harry Potter franchise is as popular as ever. As a book that finally ties the entire Harry Potter story together and provides fans with satisfactory closure, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was the most anticipated and lauded installment of the franchise and was subsequently split into two movies....

We don’t yet know the price of the 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition, but it doesn’t require psychic powers to know that it isn’t going to be cheap. KGH analyst Ming-Chi Kuo’s prediction of the most expensive model costing “several thousand dollars” is probably exaggerated, but may not be quite as far-fetched as it seemed. David Pogue shared one of the things Apple didn’t mention on stage but did reveal during press demonstrations afterwards … Bedtime isn’t the only time you’ll be taking off your Apple Watch: while it is described as water-resistant enough to cope with sweat, rain and washing your hands, it isn’t fully waterproof, so you’ll want to take it off before taking a shower....

Warning: SPOILERS for Nightwing #66 When Nightwing took a bullet to the head fans knew that things had changed for Dick Grayson’s role in the DC Universe. It didn’t take long for fans to discover the true cost: that Dick survived the brain injury, while his past as Robin and Nightwing did not. But nobody would have expected the new twist, seeing Dick Grayson embrace the role held by one of Batman’s cruelest enemies....

Install Google Currents for iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. It’s worth mentioning that it’s available for Android devices too. After installing Google Currents, launch the app. You’re prompted to sign in with your Google Account. Tap Sign In. Then type in your Google Account credentials. The first time you’re offered a quick tutorial on how to use Google Currents. At first you’re offered a few news sources in your Library....

What is the future of Android? Can Huawei’s ArkOS overthrow Android from its long reign? Or, would it be any other operating system? Possibly, these are a few of the most asked questions regarding the future of Android. Though we’re quite not very sure about the future of Android, we have a new operating system coming down the line. It’s Google’s own Fuchsia OS we’re talking about and it is a lot exciting about this upcoming OS....

Google is about to change the music economy, preparing to hand over huge amounts of cash to win rights to offer the music locker service it has been trying to build for Google Music. However, confused internal politics and music licensing complexity mean Google, just like Spotify and Apple, isn’t set to launch its service before the end of the year. Business Insider has a pair of reports into what’s been going on at Google as it tries to challenge Apple’s music hegemony and change the balance of power back to one which maybe slightly improves the lot of the music labels....

Salt Labs would not say which company was affected as a way to protect users, but it explained that the vulnerabilities have been fixed since they were discovered. The platform offers financial services in the form of API-based mobile applications and SaaS to small- and medium-sized businesses and commercial brands, according to Salt Labs. Michael Isbitski, technical evangelist at Salt Security, told ZDNet that GraphQL API adoption is slower than REST but growing rapidly because of the potential benefits to front-end design and performance....

Siri investor Shawn Carolan has launched a new email and task management app, Handle, at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference. The web-based service with iOS companion app is based on the same CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) approach as the highly popular Mailbox iOS app … Carolan says he created the app with co-founder Jonathan McCoy when he couldn’t find an existing solution that did everything he wanted. From a brief review of the video, Handle appears to be somewhat more sophisticated than Mailbox, fully integrating emails, other tasks and calendar appointments, but we’ll be carrying out a head-to-head review of the two later to find out how they compare....

If you’re a new MacBook Pro owner, then perhaps you’ve considered using external storage to increase storage capacity. After all, the MacBook Pro is limited by relatively small internal storage drives, although you can now go up to 2TB (at a $1,200-$1,400 premium) with 15-inch build-to-order options. That said, I think most professional creatives will be interested in adopting some form of external storage to use with the new MacBook Pro....

The problem with combination wrist watch/calculators has always been that their keypads are two small to be usable by a normal sized human being. Punching no fewer than two keys at the same time was all but impossible. Now, however–and just in time for Christmas–we have a watch with keys big enough… Hold it! Wait just a darn minute. It’s…. Those…. It turns out that the Keypad made by Click isn’t a calculator at all, no matter how inviting those big, soft keys may be....

With Sprout’s Smart Inbox, it’s simple to monitor conversations happening in real-time, on all social profiles, across each social channel. It’s quick access to rich message-level data that helps you leverage the analytics in your Reporting Suite. For instance, utilizing the tagging workflow in the inbox in tandem with your Tag Report gives you quantifiable insight into the impact of messages and helps you discover volume, new themes and performance patterns....

Ridley Scott’s epic period piece Gladiator was such a rousing success that it singlehandedly revived the somewhat dormant sword and sandal movie genre. The movie follows the story of Maximus, a heroic Roman general who falls out of favor with the emperor and endures an enormous amount of trials and tribulations in his quest to get revenge for the murder of his family. And like many Hollywood period pieces, this is a film that borrows a lot of inspiration from legitimate historical record and makes those bits and bobs of history into a tale worthy of a blockbuster budget....

After being in testing for over two years, Google has finally widely launched speed limits within Google Maps this week. Following a smaller rollout earlier this week, the feature is now rolling out on a much wider scale in regions around the globe. Confirmed in a comment to Mashable, Google Maps is rolling out the ability to see speed limits through its Android and iOS applications. This functionality is going live for all users, likely in a staged rollout, starting this week....

Today at its press event to unveil its new Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones, a rebranding of its Nexus-line of devices, Google also took the wraps off new features coming to its Assistant and Home platforms and more. The company highlighted claims that its new smartphones have the best camera of any mobile device yet, including comparing it to the new iPhone 7 camera. The new Pixel phones are an evolution of Google’s previous Nexus line of Android phones with the company having more control over the manufacturing and branding of the device than in previous years, but they are still partnering with HTC behind the scenes....