Samsung's Galaxy S8 will come in two sizes, have an almost bezel-less, edge-to-edge "infinity" display and an iris scanner, the Guardian has learned. The Galaxy S8 will be announced in late March and go on sale on or around 21 April, later than the originally planned launch at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February due to knock-on effects of the Note 7 fiasco. The two variants will have screens in the 5in to 6in region, with the devices having the same or smaller proportions of previous versions of Samsung's flagship smartphone but with larger displays, according to several well placed sources talking to the Guardian. The S7 was available with either a 5.1in and 5.5in screen. The two smartphones are codenamed Dream and Dream 2, representing the smaller and larger Galaxy S8 respectively, according to two sources.

But first up are the things you may have missed, like a massive update for Google Voice, the name of the new Star Wars movie and why cassette sales are way, way up. Fitbit's recent acquisitions hint at a device we'd actually want to buy. It hasn't been a great year for wearables, with sluggish sales and underwhelming products dominating the space. Several smartwatches have disappeared over the last twelve months, and for Dan Cooper, devices from Apple, Samsung and Google that try to recreate the smartphone experience on the wrist just aren't compelling. However, those companies are increasingly the only games in town after the demise of low-power wearable companies like Pebble, Vector and Basis.

Samsung has confirmed that the Galaxy S8 will not launch at technology tradeshow Mobile World Congress next month. The company has officially confirmed that Galaxy Note 7 handsets caught fire because of a range of battery issues, and says it will now focus on regaining consumer trust. "We look forward to moving ahead with a renewed commitment to safety," the company said in a statement. "The lessons of the past several months are now deeply reflected in our processes and in our culture. "More than ever, we are committed to earning the trust of our customers through innovation that redefines what is possible in safety, and as a gateway to unlimited possibilities and incredible new experiences."

We're excited to announce that TMT News Magazine has honored Next IT with a 2016 Technology Award. Next IT was recognized for Best Customer Experience & Workforce Support AI Solutions. TMT News covers innovation and trends at the intersection of technology, media and telecommunications, areas in which we at Next IT are also very active.

It is set to be a monumental battle for the next generation of smart assistants. Samsung has fired the latest salvo in its AI phone battle with Apple, revealing more details of Bixby, it's competitor for Siri. The AI is said to have visual search capabilities to analyze the images, identify objects and performing optical character recognition on visible text. Although the Samsung Galaxy S8 reveal is around the corner, many users are still feeling the burn from the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco. However, the firm may redeem itself, as the flagship smartphone is rumored to have an assistant more powerful than Apple's Siri Bixby could be used for a wide variety of functions in a similar way to Apple's Siri.

In recent months, machine learning has become somewhat of a buzzword, with major players such as Google highlighting the positive impact it can have for businesses. Defined as a subset of artificial intelligence, machine learning focuses on the development of computer programmes that can teach themselves, and grow and change in response to new data. With 90% of the world's data having been created in the last two years alone, the ability to develop automated processes to efficiently adapt to new information is invaluable. For mobile operators, machine learning has the potential to drive huge benefits, in particular when it comes to tackling fraud. In 2016 alone, telcos are expected to face global losses of $294 billion, making it vital that they look to utilise all tools at their disposal to combat such a pressing issue, says Raul Gomes Azevedo, director Product Development, WeDo Technologies. For starters, fraud management involves identifying specific profiles and behaviour, and checking whether everything's running as expected, or if there are any anomalies.

Samsung is not launching the Galaxy S8 this month, but tidbits about the flagship phone's specs and features are already spreading online like wildfire. This week, a new report is claiming that the Galaxy S7 successor's camera will come with Bixby support. Bixby is Samsung's upcoming AI assistant that is rumored to match Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa in more ways than one. The intelligent assistant is rumored to launch with the ability to control all of Samsung's native apps and even conduct mobile payments. Interestingly, there is new information claiming that a Bixby search tool will be integrated into the software that controls the Galaxy S8 camera. This Thursday, SamMobile ran an exclusive story about the S8's standard camera having a visual search and optical character recognition (OCR) tool powered by Bixby.

Did you ever get a pre-recorded telemarketing or spam call, and try calling back, only to get redirected to a premium rate service? There have been several instances of such telecom fraud, costing telecom companies a lot of money. While telecom fraud calls can take several forms, most cases involve fake conferencing services and false answer supervision (FAS). For instance, when a network carrier dials a number with the support of unscrupulous third-party providers, the targeted user might choose from various IVR options to connect with a customer care representative beyond business hours. Eventually, instead of getting a notification stating that the service is unavailable during this time, the call might generate billable minutes. Such instances of telecom fraud calls are only rising.

The scientific discoveries and technological innovations produced by Bell Labs research and engineering have been critical not only to the evolution of global telecommunications but, more widely, they had a considerable impact on the technological base of the global economy and, indeed, on our daily lives. Bell Labs is the source of many significant contributions, of course, in the area of telephony, but also in memory devices, imaging devices, system organization, computers and software technology, as well as acoustics, optics, switching, transmission, and wireless and data communication. New principles, new materials, new devices, and new systems from Bell Telephone Laboratories resulted in new industries, hundreds of new products, and thousands of new jobs. The invention of the transistor in 1947, and subsequent advances in related solid-state device and circuit technology formed the basis of a multibillion dollar global industry and ultimately enabled the digital world. Shannon's seminal paper titled "A Mathematical Theory of Communication," published over 60 years ago, gave birth to Information Theory and has stood as the guiding foundation for communications scientists and engineers in their quest for faster, more efficient, and more robust communications systems ever since.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Intelligent Agents for Telecommunication Applications, IATA'98, held in Paris, France, in July 1998, in conjunction with the 1998 Agents World Conference. The book presents 17 revised full papers carefully selected for inclusion in the volume. The book is divided into topical sections on network architecture, network configuration and planning, network optimization, network management, agent-based architectures for service applications.