Tinder is attempting to get more in step with the transgender community. Speaking at the Code Conference on Thursday, Tinder CEO Sean Rad revealed that the company is about to roll out new features in the popular dating app that will account for gender besides male and female, while he couldn't yet get into specifics. For users who are transgender, Tinder has been tricky -- if not overtly dangerous and risky -- to navigate in its current form. Trans users have been banned from the app after being reported by non-trans users who match with them. Others trans users report experiencing harassment on the app, or even fearing meeting up with users who might be unaware of or hostile to their gender status. For banned users, Tinder has historically reviewed and reinstated accounts that did not violate community guidelines.

The tech industry is obsessed with its hunt for finding the next big thing after the smartphone. Last year, it was wearables, like the Apple Watch and FitBit. Each one of those was supposed to change the the way we interact with technology. And each one of those has failed to deliver so far. There's still a sliver of hope for some of those, I guess. We're addicted to our smartphones, and it's going to take something truly groundbreaking to unhook us.

Pebble announced its 3G-enabled Core device just last week, and even though the gadget won't ship until 2017, the company is already adding features. Amazon's Alexa virtual assistant will be available on the wearable exercise accessory, bringing voice controls to the iPod Shuffle-esque device. With the Core, Alexa can still handle tasks like playing music, reading news headlines, shopping on Amazon, ordering food, controlling smart home tech and more. In terms of more Pebble-specific chores, the virtual assistant can read your Pebble Health summary to keep you up to speed on your daily stats.

This could help you in building your first project! Be it a fresher or an experienced professional in data science, doing voluntary projects always adds to one's candidature. My sole reason behind writing this article is to get your started with recommendation systems so that you can build one. If you struggle to get open data, write to me in comments. Recommendation engines are nothing but an automated form of a "shop counter guy". You ask him for a product.

Microsoft first brought the feature to Android users, but now folks on Windows 10 Mobile can also get phone notifications synced to their Windows 10 PCs. The new feature was just added as an addition to Cortana in the latest Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview on the fast ring--build 14356. Cortana can send phone notifications and what Microsoft calls "critical alerts" to your Windows PC with the updated version of Windows 10 Mobile. This includes items that already show up, such as regular text messages and missed call alerts, as well as notifications from other messaging apps (WhatsApp, Line, Telegram, etc.), social media alerts, and other app notifications. Microsoft says it's also working on muting notifications on a per-app basis, but that functionality is not ready yet.

Amazon's Dot - Is this what the next big thing in tech will look like? In Apple's perfect world, we'd all own a 500 iPhone, and that device would be at the center of our digital universe. We'd handle our finances with it. We'd have it in our hands when we're at work, when we're resting, and when we're playing. And when we want to give our eyes a break, we'd switch to our iPad.

Speaker after speaker here got absolutely giddy talking about software programs that can learn from our behavior, anticipate our next moves, and do things we used to have to endure. Long-time geek Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft called the emergence of AI the realization of all those dreams young science fans had as kids. "This is what it was all leading up to. Machines that are as capable and more capable than human intelligence." Gates' Seattle neighbor, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, was just as effusive.

Via Facebook Messenger or text you can engage And Chill, where it will ask you to tell it a particular movie you enjoyed and why you liked it. The bot will analyze your reasoning and use the data it receives to recommend films in the same vein as the one you stated a preference for. The science behind it all isn't so readily shared by the startup itself, but it "uses a few different frameworks to detect patters, attributes, and other factors" to work its magic. At the time of this post And Chill is under some heavy load, promising it "won't be long" for a response, but to expect delays. I wasn't actually able to get a recommendation due to said delays (I waited 20 minutes for a response) but it looks from other user reviews it's offering some decent suggestions here and there.

June 2, 2016, 8:14 AM From Amazon Echo to Google Home, the biggest technology companies are betting big on virtual assistants powered by artificial intelligence. Google CEO Sundar Pichai predicts "we will move from mobile-first to an AI-first world."

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is hosting its annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) on June 13-17 in San Francisco, and RBC expects Siri to hog the limelight this year, along with extensive OS upgrades and potential macbook pro refresh. Siri SDK & More: "Expect AAPL to showcase Siri SDK for 3rdparty developers to expand use cases for Siri and lay groundwork for a wifi-enabled personal assistant (Like Amazon Echo)." "We expect a more robust integration of various OS's across AAPL's ecosystem, with Siri taking the center stage in terms of integration," Amit Daryanani wrote in a note. For example, MacOS is expected to get Siri integration to further drive usage of Apple's voice assistant. Daryanani expects some discussion on integrating VocaIIQ (Apple's acquisition in late 2015) and laying the groundwork to launch a more comprehensive artificial intelligence-powered personal assistant device.