Month: September 2016

Four months after announcing the product at Google I/O, Google Allo has finally launched. Allo is yet another attempt at a Google instant messaging platform, and while Google insists it won't shut down its current IM product, Google Hangouts, it's hard to imagine the new thing not replacing the old thing.

So what makes Allo different? The sales pitch is that Allo is an instant messaging client with a Google cloud twist. Like Google Inbox, there's a "smart reply" feature, that scans the current chat and generates several pre-typed responses using Google's cloud-powered machine learning. For instance, at a very basic level, if Google detects a "yes" or "no" question, you'll get "yes" or "no" buttons to reply with above the keyboard. Google says that smart reply will "improve over time and adjust to your style."

The other cloud-powered feature is the Google Assistant, which is Google's new chat bot technology that lets your perform Google queries and see results right inside a chat window. This can be things like asking questions, showing a plane flight, or finding nearby restaurants. While you can do all of this at Google.com, doing it inside Allo means you can collaborate with a friend. Being able to do things like browse restaurant results together sounds like a great way to make dinner plans.

Enlarge / Surface Pro 3. (credit: Peter Bright)

Some models of Surface Pro 3 were struck with severe battery issues, reducing their time away from the power outlet to a few minutes or less. Microsoft issued a firmware fix in late August that appeared to work, but new complaints are growing about another battery problem, as reported by InfoWorld.

Microsoft has two sources of batteries for the Surface Pro 3: Simplo and LG. The first issue, the one that's now fixed, applied to systems with Simplo batteries: affected systems saw the battery's charge capacity drop steadily, becoming unable to store any significant charge. The firmware fix reset the reported capacity.

The new problem appears to have struck systems with the LG batteries. Affected systems don't charge when plugged into the wall and, even though they're showing that the battery has charge, are turning off immediately when unplugged.

(credit: fdecomite)

A Manhattan-based federal judge ruled on Monday (PDF) that a man accused of running an illegal Bitcoin exchange website could not have two charges of running an unlicensed money transfer business dropped because Bitcoin is money.

The defendant is Anthony Murgio of Florida, who was arrested in July 2015 in connection with a number of other American and Israeli men who allegedly hacked into JP Morgan Chase, ETrade, and News Corp., among others. Murgio was not directly charged with conducting any of the hacks, but the Justice Department did claim that Murgio ran a sketchy Bitcoin exchange website called Coin.mx with Gery Shalon, the alleged mastermind of the JP Morgan hacks. According to a 2015 indictment, Murgio and others were able to accept shady money from co-conspirators through Coin.mx.

Murgio is also accused of misrepresenting his business to financial institutions by creating a front for Coin.mx called the “Collectables Club,” as well as with bribing a small New Jersey credit union to process its electronic payments. Judge Alison Nathan’s Monday order did not impact those charges.

Enlarge (credit: Getty | RJ Sangosti)

Chiming in with reminders, data, and tips, our sleek gadgets and handy apps want to program us into being better versions of ourselves: more responsible, productive, healthy. But, sadly, some technology is no match for the chaotic code of an emotional human—particularly one struggling on a diet.

According to a two-year study, wearable fitness trackers designed to coax users into busting moves and burning calories throughout their daily lives didn’t help anyone lose weight. In fact, overweight dieters using the arm-mounted gizmos actually gained more weight on average than those using old-fashioned, tech-less dieting schemes. The study, published Tuesday in JAMA, contradicts earlier studies that found the trackers can boost weight loss. But those earlier trials tended to be smaller and shorter.

The new data, the authors say, suggests that tossing technology at big problems, like fitness, diet, willpower, and motivation, isn’t straightforward and requires more nuanced, long-term studies. “I think we have to be a little bit cautious about simply thinking that what we can do is just add technology to these already effective interventions and expect better results,” lead study researcher John Jakicic, of the University of Pittsburgh, said in an interview with JAMA.