Mobile phone technology has progressed at an astonishing pace, with advanced technologies like fingerprint scanners and artificial intelligence now becoming a common sight on handsets. Yet it appears we're a stickler for tradition, with alarm clocks and maps topping out in a list of our favourite smartphone features in a survey by uSwitch. In a study of 2,000 UK adults, 42% cited GPS technology – used for map and navigation apps – as the most useful feature on their phone. This came above even mobile messaging apps such as Facebook and WhatsApp, which ranked highest with 36% of respondents. Alarm clock apps – which have largely replaced clock radios to become the default method for getting us out of bed every morning – were considered the most useful mobile phone feature by 35% of UK adults.

Amazon's Echo and Dot connected speakers are sold out, and 35 new products will have Alexa built-in this year. Did Alexa win over Siri, Cortana and Hey Google? When Amazon's Echo first hit the market, it was basically just a voice-operated speaker. Don't get me wrong; it was an attractive piece of technology, and it responded well to voice commands. But a lot of people ended up with an Echo, asked Alexa a few basic questions ("What time is it?"

Exciting new details about Bixby, the virtual assistant set to debut on Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S8, have emerged in a new report. According to SamMobile, Samsung's answer to Siri and Google Assistant will be able to leverage the handset's camera in order to identify real-world objects. The camera app on the S8 is said to feature a dedicated Bixby button, which will launch a search tool capable of recognising any object the camera happens to be focused on. From there, you'll be able to track down the item online and even purchase it, which could prove a dangerously convenient feature for shopaholics. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar.

Has Amazon's Echo and Google's Google Home taken up residence in your home? They are supremely useful after all, providing assistance with everything from weather forecasts to smart-home control. All you need to do is ask. In order to fulfill your requests, however, both of these voice-activated digital assistants must upload your verbal commands to the cloud. Just what does that entail?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the branch of computer sciences that emphasizes the development of intelligence machines, thinking and working like humans. Today, Artificial Intelligence is a very popular subject that is widely discussed in the technology and business circles. Many experts and industry analysts argue that AI or machine learning is the future -- but if we look around, we are convinced that it's not the future -- it is the present. With the advancement in technology, we are already connected to AI in one way or the other -- whether it is Siri, Watson or Alexa. Yes, the technology is in its initial phase and more and more companies are investing resources in machine learning, indicating a robust growth in AI products and apps in the near future.

In the year 2016 bots, AI, and machine learning seemed to be all the rage, with all of these topics getting mixed into one big bundle. Many people seemed to forget that they are not the same but only related to each other. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an umbrella term that describes the part of computer science that deals with making computers emulate human intelligence. Machine learning is the part of AI that makes a computer appear intelligent. Bots are an application -- an application being most helpful if it is based upon a minimal level of (artificial) intelligence, and that particularly serves interaction purposes.

Key sectors of interest include Internet of Things, FinTech, Future of Work, Logis-cs/Transporta-on, eHealth, Security and others. BootstrapLabs is a Venture Capital firm based in Silicon Valley and focused on Applied Ar:ficial Intelligence About Us 3. Community of Founders, Intrapreneurs, AI/ML Experts, Execu-ves, Professors, Researchers, Investors focused on Innova-on, Technology and Entrepreneurship 30K PEOPLE Our Community 200K FOLLOWERS 1K ATTENDEES Our online community between BootstrapLabs core team and its closer advisors has over 200K followers. We see traffic on our website and deal flow referral coming from over 60 countries BootstrapLabs brought together over 1,000 people during 2016. Our community is a key pillar of our success and we organize many exclusive private and public AI centric events each year 4. Applied AI Digest #1 2016 Google's DeepMind Beats a Top Player at the Game of Go Zucks to create AI-Powered Jarvis JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC IBM Watson Head on the Future of AI Read Full Articles 5. Applied AI Digest #2 Artificial Intelligence Deals on the RiseCould AI Solve the World's Biggest Problems? Harvard is building an AI Engine as fast as the Brain Read Full Articles 6. Applied AI Digest #3 Is Big Data Still a Thing?

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.

One thing was clear at CES 2017: virtual assistants from Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and IBM showed up in a broad range of robots, speakers, appliances and even vehicles. Amazon's Alexa was the clear winner with an entourage of companies demonstrating new Skills that control their services and devices through Alexa commands. IBM demonstrated partnerships with JBL, Harman and Panasonic where Watson is exposed in intelligent hotel mirrors, speakers, and vehicles. Alexa wasn't the only virtual assistant on display in vehicles: FCA and Ford had IBM Watson demos showing off similar capabilities. Now that connectivity is nearly ubiquitous with virtual assistants in cars and autonomous vehicles are on the horizon, automakers are envisioning an entirely different experience in the car.

Siri has been in the hot seat for a little while now, thanks to other companies out there seemingly outpacing Apple in the digital personal assistant front. Honestly, it's good that Apple's effort is seeing so much attention, even if it is all positive. One of the reasons why I think Apple has done so well for itself is because it traditionally takes its time before doing something. What I mean by that, is we see companies launch something, and then Apple eventually gets around to doing it, and, hopefully, doing it better. It's one of the reasons why the iPhone took off like it did. Apple's Siri was the digital personal assistant to start it all, so perhaps we shouldn't be all that surprised that we're seeing the opposite outcome.