14 December 2017

How to View and Delete All Your Windows 10 Activity History


windows-10-privacy

Windows 10 collects and saves your activity history both on your computer and to the cloud, from browsing history to location information to everything in between. Luckily Microsoft makes it easy to see all the data that is being stored, and also makes it easy to delete it. What Data Does Windows 10 Track? The data that Windows collects includes: Edge browsing history Bing search history Location data (if it’s enabled) Cortana voice commands If you use Microsoft’s HealthVault or the Microsoft Band device, any activity collected through that service is also stored. Microsoft says it collects this data in order...

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How to Delete Your Amazon Echo Voice Data


personalize-amazon-echo

Does the Amazon Echo eavesdrop on conversations? Is our chit-chat a privacy disaster in the making? Should we be worried about what Amazon is learning about us in our very homes? Short answer: No. The Amazon Echo does NOT eavesdrop on pillow talk. The far-field communication technology DOES pick up voice commands and connects to the voice-controlled intelligent personal assistant service called Alexa. The voice requests are processed in the cloud and the results are delivered to the device. And those voice requests are saved. The Amazon Echo only records and stores the wake word and the voice command that follows. You can see the complete record of...

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How to Check Amazon Seller Feedback and Not Get Scammed


Compared to other online marketplaces, Amazon is exceptionally reliable. Though sites such as eBay and Alibaba do have refund policies, Amazon’s is perhaps the most comprehensive and buyer-friendly. But that doesn’t mean that things can’t go wrong. Scammers are everywhere and the sheer number of users on Amazon makes the site an attractive proposition. Even though your money is relatively safe even if you are scammed, nobody really wants the hassle of dealing with the claims system. It’s much easier to do your due diligence before hitting “Buy.” Thankfully, Amazon makes it easy. Here’s how to check seller feedback on Amazon...

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Crunch Report | Glow-in-the-Dark Plants


Blue Origin’s Crew Capsule 2.0 takes first flight, scientists at MIT make glow-in-the-dark plants and Google is opening an AI center in China. All this on Crunch Report. Read More
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Plenty of Fish adds new conversation features to differentiate itself from Tinder


 Match Group, which houses a large portfolio of dating app brands – including most notably, Tinder, Match, and OKCupid – is prepping a notable upgrade to one of its older brands: Plenty of Fish. The dating service, often dubbed ‘POF’ by its users, was founded in 2003 then sold to Match Group in 2015 for $575 million. But it has since remained fairly quiet, in terms of… Read More
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Half of Amazon app users have been switched to a new, swipe-based 1-Click checkout


 Has Amazon’s ‘one-click’ checkout on mobile looked a little different to you lately? A number of users of Amazon’s mobile applications have recently reported seeing a new checkout option that replaces the click – well, on mobile, the tap – with a swipe instead. As it turns out, the option is part of a fairly large-scale test Amazon has underway. Currently… Read More

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The Top 10 Things Everybody Googled in 2017


When people want to know the answer to something they invariably Google it. But what have people been Googling in 2017? Google has published various lists detailing what people have Googled over the past 12 months, including overall search terms, consumer tech, and memes. These lists, when taken collectively, provide an interesting insight into the state of the world right now. They show what piqued people’s interests, what made the news, which celebrities were hot, what sporting events got people talking, and which TV shows people watched. The Search Terms That Trended in 2017 The first, and most important, list...

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Gfycat wants to fix your low-fidelity GIFs with machine learning


 We all love to share GIFs — and there are plenty of ways to do that, through online portals or keyboards — but often times because there is so much content, you’ll end up surfacing up a lower-fidelity GIF. There can be plenty of copies of the same video clips as a GIF, or maybe it’s just difficult to capture and upload, but Gfycat hopes that it can be solved at a… Read More

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A Summary of the First Conference on Robot Learning




Whether in the form of autonomous vehicles, home assistants or disaster rescue units, robotic systems of the future will need to be able to operate safely and effectively in human-centric environments. In contrast to to their industrial counterparts, they will require a very high level of perceptual awareness of the world around them, and to adapt to continuous changes in both their goals and their environment. Machine learning is a natural answer to both the problems of perception and generalization to unseen environments, and with the recent rapid progress in computer vision and learning capabilities, applying these new technologies to the field of robotics is becoming a very central research question.

This past November, Google helped kickstart and host the First Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL) at our campus in Mountain View. The goal of CoRL was to bring machine learning and robotics experts together for the first time in a single-track conference, in order to foster new research avenues between the two disciplines. The sold-out conference attracted 350 researchers from many institutions worldwide, who collectively presented 74 original papers, along with 5 keynotes by some of the most innovative researchers in the field.
Prof. Sergey Levine, CoRL 2017 co-chair, answering audience questions.
Sayna Ebrahimi (UC Berkeley) presenting her research.
Videos of the inaugural CoRL are available on the conference website. Additionally, we are delighted to announce that next year, CoRL moves to Europe! CoRL 2018 will be chaired by Professor Aude Billard from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, and will tentatively be held in the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zürich on October 29th-31st, 2018. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Prof. Ken Goldberg, CoRL 2017 co-chair, and Jeffrey Mahler (UC Berkeley) during a break.


Twitter says Russians spent ~$1k on six Brexit-related ads


 Twitter has disclosed that Russian-backed accounts spent $1,031.99 to buy six Brexit-related ads on its platform during last year’s European Union referendum vote. Read More
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Google Assistant is coming to older Android phones and tablets


 The Google Assistant, Google’s take on Siri, Cortana and Alexa without the approachable name, has long been available on most modern phones and tablets. But given the fragmentation of the Android ecosystem, many older devices will never get the newer versions of Android that actually feature built-in support for the Assistant. Now, however, Google is bringing support for its… Read More
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Google Assistant is coming to older Android phones and tablets


 The Google Assistant, Google’s take on Siri, Cortana and Alexa without the approachable name, has long been available on most modern phones and tablets. But given the fragmentation of the Android ecosystem, many older devices will never get the newer versions of Android that actually feature built-in support for the Assistant. Now, however, Google is bringing support for its… Read More

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Google Assistant is coming to older Android phones and tablets


 The Google Assistant, Google’s take on Siri, Cortana and Alexa without the approachable name, has long been available on most modern phones and tablets. But given the fragmentation of the Android ecosystem, many older devices will never get the newer versions of Android that actually feature built-in support for the Assistant. Now, however, Google is bringing support for its… Read More

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Click-to-WhatsApp messaging buttons are now rolling out in Facebook ads


 WhatsApp has always said that it has no plans to put ads into its own app, but this is not stopping Facebook, which now owns WhatsApp, from figuring out other ways of monetizing the hugely popular messaging service, which has around 1 billion daily users. Today, Facebook is launching a new ad unit that will let businesses create a link between the two platforms: advertisers can now include… Read More
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13 December 2017

Increase Memory: 7 Weekend Projects for Windows Users


weekend-windows-projects

Do you have some computer tasks that you’ve put off? Sometimes it’s tough to find the motivation to work on a big project when you get a free weekend. We’ve covered some of these important projects for Windows users before. But that doesn’t mean that smaller projects aren’t just as important. Let’s discuss some small-scale Windows projects you can complete in an hour or two on the weekend. 1. Remove Bloatware Chances are that your PC came with some junk programs that you don’t use or care about, known as bloatware. These include apps that duplicate system functionality, don’t work...

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Imgur’s New Snacks Let You Waste Time With GIFs


Imgur has quietly added two new features, one of which, called Snacks, is designed to help you waste your day looking at GIFs. The other introduces a feed full of posts from the people and tags you follow. And lastly, Imgur is rolling out a new homepage design for visitors to the website. GIFs are everywhere you look. Alongside emojis, GIFs have changed the way we express ourselves online, especially when reacting to something. Imgur may have started life as a simple way of sharing images on Reddit, but it’s now so much more. Hence the need for some new...

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Lily raises $2M from NEA and others for a personal stylist service that considers feelings, not just fit


 One of the reasons recently IPO’d Stitch Fix became so popular among female shoppers is because of how it pairs the convenience of home try-on for clothing and accessories with a personal styling service that adapts to your tastes over time. But often, personal stylists bring their own subjective takes on fashion to their customers. A new startup called Lily aims to offer a more… Read More

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Here’s what people were Googling in 2017


 There are few metrics in the world that offer as much insight into our society as Google’s annual “Year in Search.” More than any of the other year-end download and streaming roundups, Google’s offers a clear snapshot of the things that captured our imaginations and baffled us during what felt like a particularly turbulent year. Read More
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Reduce Finder Clutter and Mac Junk With Aliases, Tags, and More


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From media and documents to applications and system preferences, your Mac Finder eats every kind of data you throw at it. Even when you’re using other apps, Finder is the final destination for data and preferences. No wonder it gets cluttered up so often! A thorough Finder cleanup every now and then is necessary, but it can only take you so far. You need a good strategy for dodging clutter as well as clearing it. Lost files, distracting data, and space-hogging duplicates can really suck up valuable space. Let’s look at five strategies you can adopt to reduce clutter in...

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Mario Bear has come to save 2017


 It’s been a long year – it feels like it actually spanned about 50, in fact. But now, at the end, some relief: Mario Bear. Yes, it’s just a bear from Build-A-Bear Workshop. And a ‘brand collaboration,’ that horrific thing that usually just means some executives get a larger Christmas bonus and more people are convinced to part with their hard-earned money on… Read More

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