After accidentally announcing a new 50 Echo Dot on Twitter yesterday, Amazon has confirmed the device this morning, alongside a white Echo and UK launch . But even better than the lower price (down from the 90 previous model) is the fact that anyone, not just existing Echo users, can snap it up. Previously, you had to order the Dot using Alexa from an Echo or Fire TV. Just like before, the new Echo Dot can bring Amazon's Alexa voice assistant to any speaker with a 3.5mm aux cable. The company claims the second-gen model is a bit sleeker than before, though it looks pretty similar to the original from photos. It includes a faster speech processor, which takes better advantage of its seven far-field microphones for voice recognition.

U.S. stocks were slightly higher Wednesday morning as utility companies climbed. Energy companies were trading lower as the price of oil continued to slip. Stocks are at their lowest levels in two months after large losses in two of the last three days. The Dow Jones industrial average advanced 31 points, or 0.2%, to 18,097 as of 10:05 a.m. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 5 points, or 0.2%, to 2,132.

A father was shot and killed late Tuesday after he opened the front door of his Woodland Hills home expecting a pizza delivery, officials said. The 37-year-old man was at home in the 4900 block of Medina Drive with his wife and young daughter at 11:50 p.m. when he answered the front door. A Los Angeles police detective told KTLA-TV they think the man opened the door because he had ordered a pizza. Instead, he was met by unidentified assailants. That's when police said he was shot and killed outside his home.

AI and machine learning are all the rage across a range of technology and industrial sectors. Now, the U.S. military is gauging the prospects for leveraging machine learning and other tools in autonomous weapons via emerging human-machine interfaces. In describing the latest version of the Pentagon's "offset strategy," senior U.S. defense officials have in recent months highlighted the military's desire to leverage AI to develop autonomous weapons. That, Robert Work, deputy U.S. defense secretary, noted in a recent address, "is going to lead to a new era of human-machine collaboration and combat teaming. Added Work: "Collaboration is using the tactical acuity of a computer to help a human make better decisions and human-machine combat teaming is using manned and unmanned platforms." DoD's "offset strategy" refers to a blueprint designed to maintain technological superiority.

At the recent VentureBeat MobileBeat conference on July 13, a panel of executives assembled to discuss the impact of emerging technologies on the future of commerce. Three executives from high-profile companies - Holger Luedorf, senior vice president of Business Development at Postmates; Nichele Lindstrom, director of Digital Marketing at Whole Foods Market; and Eric Moujaes, senior director of Global Digital Product at McDonald's - chimed in and gave their insights on what they believe to be the most overhyped and promising technologies that will impact commerce in the near term. Their perspectives fell on the spectrum of the slightly surprising (drones will not be the future delivery vehicle of choice) as well as in alignment with current'hot' trends (chat bots look to be in like flynn). All three executives' opinions shed light on the potential future of our role as consumers and on businesses as providers in a'brave new world'. With companies like Amazon and Google forecasting the use of drones for delivery (any day now), people may be expecting these unmanned aerial vehicles to be a serious part of the future of commerce, but McDonald's Eric Moujaes believes differently.

Cyber criminals are quite adept at stealing data, money and privacy. No network is off limits as they exploit any point of weakness they find in businesses, homes, institutions, automobiles, utility networks and other portals. And their tactics evolve faster than security professionals can manage them. The question is, can we leverage technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and cognitive computing to win the war against cyber criminals? Cybersecurity experts shared their thoughts on this topic.

In this episode of Newsbud's Roundtable Professor Abigail Hall Blanco provides a deeper look into the driving factors behind official drone policy, who it benefits and why. We are also joined by Erik Moshe, a Newsbud Analyst & Author. We cover Erik's recent series'The New Drone Order, Part IV- Reapernomics: An Economic Way of Thinking About Drones' Follow Newsbud on Twitter http://bit.ly/29d5XFD

After more than 10 years since the release of "Robocop" the dreams of film creators are likely to become true. Of course, the humanity has not devised hi-tech cyborgs like the main character of the film. However, today complicated robots maintain public order and security in different parts of the world. Here you can get yourself acquainted with "robocops" which help police in real world. This year after annual Republican Convention the police of Cleveland allowed a robot named Griffin to patrol the streets.

This turns out to have been an awkward thing for Wells Fargo Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf to have said about Carrie Tolstedt, Wells Fargo's head of Community Banking, when she announced her retirement in July: "A trusted colleague and dear friend, Carrie Tolstedt has been one of our most valuable Wells Fargo leaders, a standard-bearer of our culture, a champion for our customers, and a role model for responsible, principled and inclusive leadership," said John Stumpf, Wells Fargo's chairman and chief executive officer. It turns out that Wells Fargo's community banking culture involved creating millions of fake accounts for customers to satisfy the bank's frenzy for cross-selling products and services. And Tolstedt now gets to bear the standard for that culture, as the Senate investigates, Fortune reports that "she will be walking away with 124.6 million in stock, options, and restricted Wells Fargo shares," and shareholders have called for her to be held responsible for the fake accounts by clawing back her pay: Another investor said: "If this person presided over this, why no accountability? We have share-based pay so that it can be clawed back when people have been earning bonuses under false pretences, and if fraudulently opening client accounts isn't false pretences, then I don't know what is." Wells Fargo's cross-selling scandal is so odd because it is both at the absolute core of the bank's business, and also curiously irrelevant.

Imagine if you can, Japanese punk rock in the background and a motorcycle speeding through the streets of Tokyo. The camera pans around, over the shoulder of the rider and up ahead is a raging monster. A truck pulls up beside the motorcycle and a crane/lift contraption pulls it inside. They spring into action battling the beast as the A.D. Police arrive and bumble around. The armored suits crush the monster and vanish.