From offering simple streaming content to highly personalized streaming content, streaming media technology has come a long way with a lot happening along the way. Offering streaming content was an achievement, but its progress was constrained by various factors such as computer hardware cost, limited computer capabilities, limited internet bandwidth and lack of compression technologies. Then things changed as computer abilities improved, hardware and storage cost reduced, compression technologies were improved, internet bandwidth improved and that gave a boost to streaming content. Various events began to be broadcast via streaming and the results were encouraging. Businesses sensed a good investment opportunity and jumped onto the bandwagon. But something even bigger was to come – the mobile device revolution and artificial intelligence (AI).

Do you ever wish that Amazon's Alexa or Google Assistant were a bit more present for your chats? The answer might be this robotic head from tech company Furhat Robotics. As well as offering you a more human way to talk to a computer the Furhat robot also has the advantages of being able to emote, something Alexa and Assistant struggle with. Designed by a Swedish firm, Furhat isn't entirely designed to replace consumer products like Alexa and Assistant. The robots are currently being used by larger companies who need to give some life to artificial intelligence.

Google announced official support for the Schema.org The speakable specification will help Google Assistant and Google Home choose which content to read aloud. This new structured data markup is important because it may point to what you'll need to know to get more traffic should/when Google expands this structured data to all websites. The support for this new markup is currently limited to News content. However, it is likely that support for the speakable attribute will inevitably expand as Google gains experience with this new structured data markup.

Javier Soltero, who briefly led the development of Microsoft's Cortana digital assistant, plans to leave the company, Soltero confirmed on Tuesday. Soltero confirmed his decision via Twitter after ZDNet reported the story earlier on Tuesday. Microsoft representatives had not previously responded to requests for comment, but confirmed his departure after Soltero's Twitter message. "I've made the decision to leave Microsoft," Soltero wrote. "The past 4 years have been an incredible experience.

Players of digital games face numerous choices as to what kind of games to play and what kind of game content or in-game activities to opt for. Among these, game content plays an important role in keeping players engaged so as to increase revenues for the gaming industry. However, while nowadays a lot of game content is generated using procedural content generation, automatically determining the kind of content that suits players' skills still poses challenges to game developers. Addressing this challenge, we present matrix- and tensor factorization based game content recommender systems for recommending quests in a single player role-playing game. We discuss the theory behind latent factor models for recommender systems and derive an algorithm for tensor factorizations to decompose collections of bipartite matrices. Extensive online bucket type tests reveal that our novel recommender system retained more players and recommended more engaging quests than handcrafted content-based and previous collaborative filtering approaches.

How Americans vote today will determine who sits in government for at least the next two years--but tonight's outcome will shape policy for years to come. With hundreds of key races nationwide, some of which are poised to significantly shift long-established state and national leadership, the 2018 midterm elections will be one to watch. Here's how you can stay informed before, during, and after tonight's midterm elections. First: Have you voted yet? If you're heading to the polls, consider a few of these resources to help you make sense of the salient issues of this year, and find more information about voting.

When it comes to fashion, we can all use a little help. Of course, having a personal stylist is the dream, but the next-best thing is Amazon's Echo Look. The Echo Look snaps selfies at your command. Its voice-controlled selfie cam takes full-body shots and short videos so you can see how your outfit look from all angles. In our testing, the images were excellent even in low light conditions.

Nike has updated its iOS Run Club app to add a couple of features encouraging you to run more. The app's latest version features Siri Suggestions integration, which means your iOS Spotlights will urge you to put on your running shoes based on your previous activities. If you typically run an hour or so before heading to work, for instance, you'll start seeing the Nike Run Club app as an app suggestion every morning, making it harder to skip when you don't really have a legit reason. In addition, the update adds a couple of complications you can use with the Apple Watch Infograph face. One of them launches the app, while the other shows the total distance you've run for the month.

Cortana's role at Microsoft is evolving (who'd have thought Alexa and Cortana would play nicely?), and the team in charge of the AI assistant looks to be changing as well. ZDNet sources claim that Microsoft's Corporate VP of Cortana, Javier Soltero, is leaving by the end of 2018. The executive, who came to Microsoft when it bought mail startup Accompli in 2014, reportedly plans to return to entrepreneurial pursuits. We've asked Microsoft if it can confirm the departure. If accurate, Soltero's exit could be a sign of how Microsoft will handle Cortana going forward.

WASHINGTON – Dante Bucci is a 22-year-old marketing student who lives in one of Washington's most hip neighborhoods. The New Jersey native is clean cut, well dressed and well spoken. But as a Republican in one of the most liberal cities in America, his political views are kryptonite in the U.S. capital's dating world -- where he frequently finds himself attracted to Democrats. Not a lot of second dates," Bucci says of his love life these days. "I think Donald Trump has a lot to do with that." In the 2016 presidential election, Trump earned … 4 percent of the vote in the District of Columbia. It's not exactly great math for a young, single conservative man who backed the real estate mogul. And with the key midterm vote having stoked political tensions, Republicans like Bucci have found that romance is all but dead. "They want to date someone that they can agree with on some issues," laments Bucci, who supports abortion rights and gay marriage and calls himself a moderate Republican. "'I'm a Republican but …' -- I've started so many sentences that way." "Make America Date Again," of course. "I felt a real need for this app," said Emily Moreno, a 25-year-old Republican who founded the site after speaking to many of her friends. Moreno said that many people in Washington say if they mention working for Trump or Republican causes to potential love matches, "the date is shut down -- it's a deal-breaker." Four days after launching the site in mid-October, Moreno said the app had been downloaded 20,000 times. One senior adviser for a Republican member of Congress tried the app because he has found dating as a gay Trump supporter a particular challenge. "The gay guys in DC are really close-minded," said the 31-year-old who wished to remain anonymous, calling himself "a minority within a minority within the minority." He noted that the dislike goes both ways. "If someone was super into Hillary Clinton, I would be turned off by that," he explained. On other widely used dating apps like Tinder or Bumble, Bucci said he found nothing but land mines. According to a sample of several dozen Tinder profiles, many women urged Republicans guys to swipe left -- meaning to pass them by. Kendall, 23, is one of those women. "Allergic to bees and Republicans" reads the bio on her Tinder profile. They voted for a person who openly bragged about sexually assaulting women so no," she said when asked why she was ruling out the men of the GOP.