Now, it may be more of a reality than previously thought. Public information about company leadership can make an email or social media phishing attack more convincing, especially as hackers automate data collection on a targeted company using ML to emulate both the timing of communications and writing style. When will Siri be smart enough to step in and protect us?::cough:: Is that even on Apple's radar? The technical journalist's job is to know the strengths and weaknesses of each platform and to educate the user about them. New iPad Pro has both strengths and weaknesses.

Computers can be transformed into smart speakers with a mere app. Both laptops and PCs operating on Windows 10 can be now enhanced with AI assistant, Alexa, from this week. It comes after the voice-activated product was made available on the Microsoft store for users in the UK, US and Germany. It works through a devices microphone and speakers, instantly making Alexa portable for use both inside and outside the home. Some Windows PCs will already be compatible with the program's'wake word' functionality, meaning people can use it hands-free by simply saying its name - much like separate speakers.

Who says the holiday season doesn't bring people--or, in this case, two near-trillion dollar companies--together? With just two weeks to go until Black Friday, Apple and Amazon appeared to have put their differences behind them with latest iPhones, iPads, Macs and other Apple gear officially beginning to arrive at the online retail giant's virtual shelves. The products, which also includes the Apple Watch and Apple accessories, will be sold and shipped by Amazon directly. The Apple gear will begin arrive to Amazon over the coming weeks and will include the latest iPhone XR and XS phones and recently released MacBook Air and iPad Pros. More: Review: Apple gives MacBook Air (most) of the love it's been lacking The HomePod, Apple's voice-controlled Siri speaker rival to Amazon's Alexa and Echo, will not be among the products soon to be available at the online retailer.

Forget swiping though endless profiles. Dating apps are using artificial intelligence to suggest where to go on a first date, recommend what to say and even find a partner who looks like your favourite celebrity. Until recently smartphone dating apps--such as Tinder which lets you see in real time who is available and "swipe" if you wish to meet someone--left it up to users to ask someone out and then make the date go well. But to fight growing fatigue from searching through profiles in vain, the online dating sector is turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to help arrange meetings in real life and act as a dating coach. These new uses for AI--the science of programming computers to reproduce human processes like thinking and decision making--by dating apps were highlighted at the four-day Web Summit which wraps up Thursday in Lisbon.

Javier Soltero, head honcho of Microsoft's Cortana business, has stepped down. The move comes less than two months after Soltero took to the stage at Ignite to push the tech at businesses. Having singularly failed to capture the hearts and minds of consumers, the new strategy involved persuading enterprises that Cortana's personal assistant chops could be put to work filing reports and other "company-specific" tasks. Alas, it does not appear that Cortana's current daddy is going to be hanging around long enough to see those efforts come to fruition, according to a tweet last night. The past 4 years have been an incredible experience.

Before a child becomes a teenager there are 1,300 pictures of them online and they post up to 70,000 times before they turn 18, claims a new report. Anne Longfield, Children's Commissioner for England, said that a child's digital footprint now starts before they are born when parents post scans on social media. In a startling report, she also warns about the danger of internet-connected children's toys such as CloudPets and Amazon's Echo potentially harvesting data, without parents' knowledge, and storing it online. Anne Longfield, Children's Commissioner for England, said that a child's digital footprint now starts when they are still in the womb when doting parents post scans on social media (stock) CloudPets are soft animal toys that allow children to record voice messages and play the messages of family and friends. It was revealed last year that millions of these private and intimate messages were being accessed by strangers after being left unprotected online. The report also warned of internet-enabled baby cameras that stream live video of a child to an app on a parent's phone as the security is often easy to bypass for hackers.

A majority of Americans across a wide range of demographic groups are YouTube adopters, with younger Americans standing out as especially avid users of the site. A new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. adults finds that these users are turning to YouTube for much more than entertainment. Roughly half of YouTube users say the platform is very important for helping them figure out how to do things they've never done before. That works out to 35% of all U.S. adults, once both users and non-users of the site are accounted for. And around one-in-five YouTube users (representing 13% of the total adult population) say it is very important for helping them understand events that are happening in the world. The findings also highlight YouTube's key role in providing content for children.

A company spokesman said Mr. Soltero will remain with Microsoft through the end of the year. After Microsoft acquired Acompli, it quickly promoted Mr. Soltero. Within eight months, the company named him leader of Outlook, its widely used email application. A year-and-a-half later, Microsoft put Mr. Soltero in charge of strategy for the Office suite of products that include Outlook as well as the Excel spreadsheet and PowerPoint presentation applications. In March, the company moved Mr. Soltero to lead one of its most challenging businesses: its digital voice assistant, Cortana.

A Stockholm-based startup has developed a talking AI assistant with a face. Furhat combines digital assistant technology akin to Alexa or Siri and humanoid robots like SoftBank's Pepper to create a device that's creepily lifelike. It's essentially a disembodied head that can be customized with different faces - even characters from the sci-fi film Avatar. Furhat is a social robot created by Stockholm-based startup Furhat Robotics. It weighs just over 7lbs and is essentially a disembodied head with a face projected onto it.

Amazon's Alexa is available in numerous countries, but there are still major expansions left to go -- case in point, Mexico. The company has launched both Alexa and its Echo range of smart speakers in the country, complete with a new voice, Mexico-oriented Spanish, local knowledge and the Alexa skills to match. Amazon Music (including both Music Unlimited and Prime Music) is arriving in the country, too, providing millions of tunes as well as locally curated playlists and stations. The regular Echo as well as the Dot, Plus, Spot and Smart Plug are available to pre-order now ahead of a release next week. Music Unlimited is available for MXN$99 a month for individuals (MXN$990 per year if you're a Prime member), or MXN$149 (MXN$1,490 per year on Prime) for a family plan with up to six people.