Google recently introduced the $130 Home as the latest member of its hardware family for the connected home. Early impressions indicate it is capable of imperfect voice assistant with a decent speaker. It also plays nicely with Pixel and Chromecast, but could be improved if Google adds support for services like Netflix or HBO Go. Despite the Home's new veneer, iFixit says it experienced a moment of déjà vu when it reached the motherboard, which features many of the same chips as the 2015 Chromecast, with the exception of a new amplifier. "We're having déjà vu with these chips, as most of them (CPU, flash, and RAM) made an appearance in last year's Chromecast," iFixit notes.

Samsung is developing a new digital assistant for its upcoming Galaxy S8 smartphone. According to The Wall Street Journal, the South Korean firm's prototypes include a dedicated button to easily summon the AI-based helper. Following last month's acquisition of artificial intelligence company Viv Labs (co-founded by the creators of Apple's Siri), Samsung is expected to integrate its new conversational user interface into future Galaxy smartphones. "Samsung is excited to begin integrating initial AI capabilities into its future products and we look forward to sharing further details at a later date," a Samsung spokeswoman told PCMag. The software maker declined to share any further details about the forthcoming technology.

In the past 5 years, technology has revolutionized how marketers interact with their customers. Now, you've got access to advanced software and customer data for more relevant, targeted and engaging marketing. No wonder that 50 to 65% of executives expect to spend more on marketing technology in the coming year. But, what if I told you that we're only at the beginning? In the next 5 years, marketing is going to make a huge pivot- probably almost unrecognizable from its current form. You probably won't perform search engine optimization. Instead, you'll create an exotic virtual experience for your customers. A great example is artificial intelligence-powered voice assistants on your smartphones, for performing simple tasks. Sure, they lack context and aren't functional for complex tasks. But, we'll get there soon. To give you an overview, here are the 5 emerging technologies that Forrester expects to change the world, in the next 5 years. We already have some info on how these technologies are going to affect the customer-business relationship.

However, a recent Wall Street Journal report claims that Samsung delayed development of the S8 by weeks to help identify the Galaxy Note 7's battery fire problem, potentially pushing back the unveiling beyond the usual February/March window. It's unusual for Samsung to explicitly discuss future smartphones months in advance. At best, it makes component announcements that are not-so-subtle hints as to the direction of its hardware. However, it's not hard to see why Samsung would want to build buzz so early. The Note 7's premature exit didn't help Samsung's reputation or its balance sheet -- the company both wants to move past the fiasco and reassure phone buyers that it's worth sticking around.

Samsung Electronics Co. plans to equip its next Galaxy S smartphones with a Siri-like digital assistant, seeking to make a comeback after the global debacle that precipitated the death of its flawed Note 7 lineup. Samsung, which last month acquired U.S.-based artificial-intelligence software company Viv Labs Inc., said the Galaxy S8 slated for next year will come with AI-enabled features "significantly differentiated" from those in the market, such as Apple Inc.'s Siri or Google. Those services now offer up potentially useful information from the weather to flight times based on user activity. What to eat, drink, wear and drive – in real life and your dreams. The school, work and life hacks you need to get ahead.

UK privacy watchdog says Facebook agrees to suspend using WhatsApp users' data BRUSSELS Britain's privacy watchdog said on Monday that Facebook has agreed to suspend using data from UK users of its WhatsApp messaging app for advertisements or product-improvement purposes after the watchdog said consumers weren't properly protected.

Vyacheslav is a PhD candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute. His research uses social psychology and machine learning to understand networks of people and networks of ideas. Imagine a typical day in 2020: Your personal AI assistant wakes you up with a friendly greeting before preparing your favorite breakfast. During your morning workout, it plays new songs that perfectly match your musical tastes. For your driverless commute to work, it has pre-selected a few articles based on the duration of your commute and what you've read in the past.

Over the last few years, there has been an ongoing conversation about Artificial Intelligence and how it is going to change our lives and how we do business. So, if you've been keeping up with the latest technology trends, then you know that artificial intelligence has the potential to be the most disruptive technology ever. Today, we can ask Siri or Google or Cortana to help us with simple questions or tasks, but much of their actual potential is still untapped. The reason why involves language. This is where natural language processing (NLP) comes into play in artificial intelligence applications.

Samsung needs a break badly. And so they are probably working very hard on the upcoming new flagship on what we suppose will be the Galaxy S8. This will be a major test for them, to see if the smartphone will be good enough for people to forgive them for the whole Galaxy Note 7 debacle. One of the things they have confirmed is that they will be launching an artificial intelligence digital assistant as part of the flagship. Just last month, Samsung announced that they were acquiring Viv Labs Inc, which was actually run by someone highly familiar with voice assistant programs, as he was the co-creator of Apple's Siri.

Samsung dominates the smartphone industry so much so that one in every five handsets sold worldwide come from the South Korean technology giant. But the firm is still reeling from the recall of millions of its big-screen Galaxy Note 7 devices, which suffered from a battery issue that could cause the device to overheat and, in some cases, explode. That recall left Samsung without a flashy new smartphone to go head-to-head with Apple's iPhone 7 and Google's Pixel as the all-important holiday shopping season approaches. "In a market that is otherwise maturing, Christmas has come early for vendors looking to capitalize with large-screened flagship alternatives like the Apple iPhone 7 Plus and Google Pixel," said IDC analyst Melissa Chau in a report accompanying the research firm's latest smartphone sales estimates. With the Note 7 dead and buried, Samsung must look towards the future for salvation.