Following her World Cup triumph, Cortana now tries her hand at making NFL picks
Cortana is swiftly proving to be the most adamant sports fan of the mobile virtual assistants. First it was soccer score predictions during the World Cup — now Microsoft has updated Cortana once again to predict the outcome of every NFL game this season. In order to get a prediction from Cortana, simply ask “Who will win Team A or Team B?” (with your teams of choice in place) and Cortana will provide an answer.
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Comcast, TWC are paying ‘nearly a dozen’ former FCC officials to push the FCC to approve the merger
The Comcast-TWC merger is about as popular among the American public as Islamic State militants, Justin Bieber’s drunken driving and the Ebola virus — that is to say, it’s really not that popular at all. Nonetheless, the merger stands a good chance of passing for two key reasons: Comcast doesn’t care what the public thinks and the government doesn’t care what the public thinks.
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Hands-on with the new Walkman: Sony is bringing the music player back to life
Long before cell phones replaced MP3 players, before the iPod eliminated any trace of competition, there was one name that was synonymous with portable music: Walkman. Sony’s Walkman line has been through countless incarnations since its debut as a cassette player in 1979, but the latest might be the most interesting in recent memory.
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Facebook’s autoplay video ads blamed for jacking up users’ phone bills
One the absolute most annoying things that Facebook has done over the last year has been to add autoplay video ads to its mobile app that can quickly rip through your monthly mobile data cap if you aren’t careful. Consumer finance website MoneySavingExpert.com says that it’s recently “seen many complaints from people who have been stung with data bills after exceeding their monthly allowance and who believe it to be because of Facebook autoplaying videos,” which shouldn’t be surprising given how much data videos consume. The website says that it’s confirmed that videos are set by default to automatically play no matter what kind of network you’re connected to.
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BlackBerry knows how angry iCloud hacking victims could have saved themselves lots of trouble
Sure, the iPhone might have paved the way for the collapse of BlackBerry’s once-dominant handset business but that doesn’t mean the company won’t occasionally get the opportunity to laugh at its longtime tormentor.
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The Xbox One gets yet another great feature you won’t find on the PS4
Taking a page out of Valve’s book, Microsoft announced on Wednesday that Forza Motorsport 5 on Xbox One will be free for all Xbox Live Gold members from Thursday to Sunday in order to celebrate the upcoming launch of Forza Horizon 2. Weekend trials of big, recently releases games has become commonplace on Steam, but it’s not something we’ve seen on consoles up to now.
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AT&T rails against municipal broadband, argues that it should be the one getting government handouts
Cities and towns who build their own municipal broadband networks are menaces to capitalism and the American way of life — instead, we should promote free enterprise by funneling taxpayer dollars to private corporations instead. That’s literally the message that AT&T delivered to the Federal Communications Commission recently when it filed its arguments against allowing municipalities to build out their own high-speed fiber networks to compete with incumbent ISPs.
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A thinner, more powerful iPad Air model is in the works
Apple is reportedly going to introduce a thinner, more powerful iPad Air model this year – often referred to as the iPad Air 2 in existing reports – if Digitimes’ supply chain sources are to be believed.
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Bloomberg: The iPhone 6 should scare Samsung to death
Samsung released a bunch of new devices this week, highlighted by its flagship, Galaxy Note 4 phablet. However, Bloomberg’s Peter Burrows writes that Samsung’s moment in the sun is already facing creeping shadows in the form of Apple’s upcoming iPhone 6.
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Apple fans are already lining up to buy a phone that hasn’t even been announced yet
Sad but true: Some Apple fans are apparently so hyped for the iPhone 6 — and they apparently have so little to do — that they’ve already started lining up for it even though it’s a week from even being announced, let alone released. 9to5Mac points us to some pictures posted on Twitter of Apple fans queueing up outside the Apple Store in 5th Avenue in Manhattan just so they can be the very first to get their hands on the iPhone 6.
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