Smart TVs and home devices are harvesting consumers' personal data and funnelling it to big technology companies, researchers have warned. Sensitive information such as one's exact location is reportedly being wired to corporations such as Facebook, Amazon and Netflix - even if the person is not their customer. The findings from a team at the Northeastern University in Boston and Imperial College London came as fears of creeping privacy intrusion is grabbing headlines across the globe. Smart TVs and home devices are harvesting consumers' personal data and funnelling it to big technology companies, researchers have warned Sensitive information such as one's exact location is reportedly being wired to corporations such as Facebook, Amazon and Netflix - even if the person is not their customer David Choffnes, computer scientist at Northeastern University, said: 'Amazon is contacted by almost half the devices in our tests, which stands out because [this means] Amazon can infer a lot of information about what you're doing with different devices in your home, including those they don't manufacture.' A total 81 devices - including products by LG and Samsung - were monitored in the US and the UK to determine how much personal data was logged and where it was exported to, according to the Financial Times.

The users can ask Alexa for diverse Hindi content such as jokes, shayaris, games, Kabir ke dohe, Panchatantra stories, Bollywood dialogues, more than 500 Alexa skills, and even spellings of words in Hindi. According to Puneesh Kumar, Country Manager for Alexa Experiences and Devices, Amazon India, conversations in Hinglish are common. "With today's launch, you will notice that Alexa has become more local. Alexa will not only understand and respond in Hindi or Hinglish but, is also armed with a lot of knowledge about topics that interest users in the country ranging from local information to music, and from Bollywood to cricket," Kumar noted. Soon, customers will also be able to speak to Alexa in Hindi and English without changing the language setting back and forth.

Certain machine behaviors never cease to amaze me. I'm astounded by their ability to learn from their accomplishments and from their interactions with we humans. Unfortunately, many business managers still think of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms as something that will be impossible for them to understand. But I believe that knowing the fundamental principles that underlie the new technologies behind autonomous vehicles, shopping recommendation engines, Alexa and the rest can boost managers' confidence in them and help them make their companies more innovative. The two key drivers of major smart technologies today are machine learning and deep learning.

The Amazon Echo is a welcome addition in any kitchen. "Starting next month, customers will be able to simply say, 'Alexa, donate to [candidate name]' to contribute up to $200 to any participating candidate's campaign fundraising efforts," Amazon announced on its company blog. The contributions via Alexa will begin in October, Amazon said. Beyond the contributions, the e-tailer said, it will offer neutral, unbiased, nonpartisan information about the candidates, available via voice requests. "We aim to provide the most relevant, accurate, and timely information about elections and candidates," the company said.

Artificial intelligence is changing our daily lifestyle and work. It's hard to find an industry not using machine learning in some capacity to improve business operations. While the real estate space has traditionally been slow to incorporate new technologies, AI's offerings are turning heads. Tech-based companies are forming to capitalize on the advantages of AI, and corporate brokers and investors are incorporating the technologies to improve customer acquisition leads, satisfaction and service, with the understanding that these programs reduce some of the routine employee tasks and can increase profits. Artificial intelligence learns faster, thinks quicker, digs deeper and produces more accurate information and analytics. For a single investor or group, incorporating AI can provide an edge over competitors.

Here are some news to make your technical support life easier. This time we've focused on making the interface and functions even more intuitive. Technical support should always be easily accessible wherever you are--that's why we've made your virtual expert mobile-first. We simplified the layout of the virtual expert to make it easier to find things. Now every important action you want to access is found in the same place--just look in the drawer!

A few years back, when someone said "Artificial Intelligence" (AI), we immediately thought about Skynet, Terminator, Matrix, HAL 9000, J.A.R.V.I.S., and all the other SCI-Fi technologies we saw in movies. Since then, things have changed quite drastically. When you hear about AI, you expect a conversation about smart assistants like Siri, Cortana, Alexa, or you expect to hear about how IBM Watson won Jeopardy! AI slowly went past the research phase and made its way into multiple industries including healthcare, fashion, weather forecasting, teaching, and driving. IBM even made Chef Watson cook some food (and it didn't even taste that bad).

With the advent of cloud computing, e-commerce, and social media, it's difficult to keep tabs on who has access to our data, and harder still to know how much care they're taking with it -- barely a day goes by without some form of data-breach, lapse, or privacy scandal coming to the fore. But what constitutes "data-misuse" is covered by a broad gamut of scenarios that reach beyond poor security hygiene. Online tracking and profiling is rife -- it turns out there is a heap of money to be made from knowing where you are, what you do, and what you like. It all comes down to personalization: selling things, be it products, playlists, or a political ideology, based on who you are. The Facebook and Cambridge Analytical, which highlighted how social networks armed with vast banks of personal data could be leveraged to profile voters and micro-target with personalized political ads, was something of a watershed moment in terms of elevating the issue of data-privacy and abuse into the public consciousness.

A year ago, we were so impressed with what was then called the Google Home Hub, we called it one of the top 10 best tech products of 2018, with one caveat. We wished it could be bigger. Now, the all-new, and yes, larger version is in stores, with a bigger 10-inch screen (up from 7 inches) higher price tag ($229, vs. $129) and a confusing new name. The new Google Nest Hub Max, with a ten-inch screen, back to back with the old Nest Hub, with a 7-inch screen. The old Home Hub is now called the Nest Hub, and the larger, new version is the Nest Hub Max.

Apple is attending Interspeech 2019, the world's largest conference on the science and technology of spoken language processing. The conference, of which Apple is a Platinum Sponsor, will take place in Graz, Austria from September 15th to 19th. For Interspeech attendees, join the authors of our accepted papers at our booth to learn more about the great speech research happening at Apple. Apple continues to build cutting-edge technology in the space of machine hearing, speech recognition, natural language processing, machine translation, text-to-speech, and artificial intelligence, improving the lives of millions of customers every day. If you're interested in opportunities to make an impact on Apple products through machine learning research and development, check out our teams at Jobs at Apple.