Whether it's Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana, Amazon's Alexa, or virtually any GPS system, chances are the computerized personalities in your life are women. Hanson Robotics recently demoed Sophia, a learning and expressive robot designed to help humans in areas like healthcare and customer service. Market research is likely the main factor that influences tech companies when constructing AI personalities. Whether its stereotypes about women in service roles, the desire for a female companion, or simply that feeling of trust that a woman's voice instills, female AI personalities are easier for most consumers to adopt.

Smart devices such as Google Home and Amazon Echo could be transformed into surveillance tools that track your every move, according to scientists. The CovertBand tracking system uses the built-in microphone as a receiver to pick up reflected sound waves - and is so powerful it can record what you're doing through a wall. The smart device then transmits this information to the attacker, who could be a few feet away or halfway across the globe. The researchers tested CovertBand using a Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone hooked up to a portable speaker (pictured). Using a software code called CovertBand researchers turned a smart device into a sonar system which can take over built-in microphones and speakers in a smart device - that can be controlled remotely.

Let's be honest: Reaching for the remote while watching TV isn't a major inconvenience. If you can control your TV by voice instead, why wouldn't you? To that end, Google and Amazon now offer hands-free TV controls through their respective connected speakers. Amazon added Fire TV voice controls to the Echo speaker and other Alexa devices a couple weeks ago, while Google has offered similar voice controls for Chromecast through its own Google Home speaker since last December. Both combos allow you to launch videos, pause, play, rewind, and fast forward without ever touching a remote control.

The hardware now supports Alexa, Amazon's voice-enabled assistant, through an Echo or Echo Dot-equipped speaker. So you can ask, "Alexa, ask EE TV what's on tonight" and hear some suggestions from the Freeview-powered guide. The new Alexa "skill" also supports queries for specific channels and, more importantly, will let you set up recordings, regardless of whether the set-top box is on or in standby mode. Amazon has long touted Alexa as a key part of its Fire TV and Fire TV stick, however those devices are for on-demand apps only. EE TV is designed to be a single solution for people who still like to tune in to live programming.

Google has just pushed an update to its Home smart speaker that lets you make calls to any phone number in the US and Canada for free. As with its other features, you can place a call with your voice: just say, "Hey Google, Call Abhimanyu," or whoever else you've been dying to talk to, and it'll do your bidding instantly over Wi-Fi. It'll recognize your voice to load your own contacts, so when you ask it to "Call Dad," it'll phone your father and not someone else's. Plus, you can also ask Home to ring businesses by name, even if they aren't stored in your contact list. With that, Google might have just replaced your landline and beat Amazon et al to the punch as well. Echo speakers can currently talk to each other, but not to phones; Apple and Microsoft are yet to introduce these features in their upcoming smart speakers.

We're only just over halfway through 2017, but the world of web design moves pretty darned quickly, so it's a good time to step back and take stock of the trends that have emerged so far. In this post, we identify five of the top trends dominating web design right now, and where to go for further reading on each subject. If there's one thread that unites them all it's the idea that in 2017, as Chris Coyier put it in this article, "We're not building pages, we're building systems." In other words, as things like style guides, design systems and pattern libraries become more important than the visual layout of individual pages, we're seeing a seismic shift in what web design actually involves. And these five trends can all be seen, in different ways, as part of that overall transition.

Dating app Hinge is rewarding couples who meet on the app with free gifts. Couples who have made it to various relationship milestones - from early ones such as the first sleepover to more serious ones like having a baby - can claim gifts from the'Hinge Milestone Market,' including everything from an electric toothbrush to a $200 vibrator. The company partnered with sponsors like Casper, Plated, Minibar and Rent the Runway to provide rewards for the 11 milestones. Dating app Hinge is rewarding couples who meet on the app with free gifts. 'Hinge's Milestone Marketplace is a pop-up online store designed to celebrate and reward major relationship milestones - from the very first sleepover to engagements, weddings and babies,' Hinge said. The store - which will be live for seven days through August 23 - will operate on a first-come, first served basis.

Which is better: the Alexa powered Echo or Google's first attempt at a smart home speaker? Kim Komando has the answers. Google Home is coming to a host of new appliances. Google Home, the Internet giant's answer to the Amazon Echo-connected speaker, is ready to start making phone calls. The feature first announced in May means the Home speaker can now make free phone calls to folks in your Google contact list in the U.S. and Canada.

Google's Home assistant speaker is getting more features for users and the latest will make it easier to get in touch with others. In a post, Google confirmed that voice calls would coming to Home users within the next few days. The feature works similarly to other Google Home commands. By using the "Ok, Google" command, users will be able to make outgoing calls to businesses and others in their Google Contacts. Plus, domestic users will have another advantage if they use the home speaker for calls. Google will use Wi-Fi to carry calls, so they'll be free for users in the U.S. and Canada.

"You are worse than a fool; you have no care for your species. For thousands of years men dreamed of pacts with demons. Only now are such things possible." When William Gibson wrote those words in his groundbreaking 1984, novel Neuromancer, artificial intelligence remained almost entirely within the realm of science fiction. Today, however, the convergence of complex algorithms, big data, and exponential increases in computational power has resulted in a world where AI raises significant ethical and human rights dilemmas, involving rights ranging from the right to privacy to due process.