Despite delays in launching its next-gen processors, Intel posted a robust 19 percent growth in revenue, with profits soaring 42 percent. The red-hot market for PCs pressured Intel’s factories, but its focus on servers and high-end PCs boosted its positive numbers. The company’s revenue in Q3 was $19.16 billion — more than the $18.1 billion predicted by analysts, and up from $16.2 billion a year earlier. Intel partnered with Streamlabs to offer stream-capable hardware and software to third-party device manufacturers. Continue reading Intel Benefits from Hot PC Market, Partners with Streamlabs

After decades of unreliable profits, Amazon has had four consecutive quarters with profits over $1 billion, and a net income of $2.9 billion in Q3. Although the numbers exceeded analysts’ expectations, the e-commerce giant also revealed that revenue in its core retail business was below expectations, with sales up 29 percent to $56.6 billion, and sales in its online store rose only 11 percent over the last year, half the pace of a year ago. As a result, discontent investors recently dropped shares 7 percent in aftermarket trading. Continue reading Amazon Seeks Efficiency While Investing in New Businesses

The Academy Software Foundation (ASWF), a neutral forum to develop and collaborate on open source software for images, VFX, animation and sound, debuted its first hosted project, DreamWorks Animation’s OpenVDB, an open source C++ library for volumetric representations including fluid simulations, animated volumes and environmental effects. The Foundation also added Sony Pictures Entertainment/Sony Pictures Imageworks, Warner Bros., Blender Foundation and the Visual Effects Society (VES) as new members. Continue reading ASWF Debuts Open Source Project and Adds New Members

AT&T’s Q3 profit was boosted by its holdings in entertainment, including growth in HBO subscribers and revenue from its Turner TV channels. AT&T also saw 13,000 new U-verse video subscribers and 49,000 new DirecTV Now customers. That, along with a bump in smartphone customers led to $4.72 billion in profits, and also helped to offset its loss of 359,000 DirecTV satellite customers in the same quarter. AT&T stated its plans to launch mobile 5G in “parts of 12 cities” in the next few weeks. Continue reading AT&T Announces Profits, Plans to Roll Out 5G Mobile Network

Microsoft’s major investment in the cloud is beginning to pay off. In the last several quarters, this sector has grown so fast that the company’s market cap has soared to about $785 billion. Now, Microsoft reported that the results of its latest quarter have exceeded analyst expectations. When Satya Nadella became chief executive, Microsoft’s revenue largely came from marketing its Windows operating system on personal computers. Nadella turned the company towards cloud computing, with Azure as its core offering. Continue reading Microsoft Develops Hybrid Cloud Solution Strategy with Azure

Canadian wearables startup Thalmic Labs, which has rebranded itself as North, unveiled its second product — holographic smart glasses dubbed Focals. The wearable features lenses with a built-in display that shows the user messages, weather forecasts, directions and more information from the smartphone, and allows the user to call on Alexa to order an Uber and get calendar notifications among other tasks. Two years ago, North raised $120 million from Amazon’s Alexa Fund, Intel Capital and Fidelity Investments Canada. Continue reading Thalmic Labs Changes Name to North, Unveils Smart Glasses

Helios and Matheson Analytics (HMNY), parent company of MoviePass, wants to spin off the struggling movie theater subscription service as the publicly traded MoviePass Entertainment Holdings. The board has approved preliminary plans for the spin-off, which would also include other HMNY-owned film-related assets. But the company does not yet know if it is legal under Delaware law. Investors are also suing the company, which is under investigation by the New York Attorney General’s office. Continue reading Helios and Matheson Analytics Plans to Spin Off MoviePass

Patreon, the membership platform for independent creators, just revealed that it is integrating with Reddit, with the aim of bringing its artists closer to its fan base. Patreon boasts 100,000 creators and two million patrons (i.e., subscribers), many of whom already have a presence on Reddit. On Reddit, many fans have created subreddits to discuss the work of Patreon creators, such as podcast Chapo Trap House. This new relationship adds to other ways Patreon has helped creators earn revenue from their fans. Continue reading Patreon, Reddit Linkage Aims to Bring Artists Closer to Fans

At this week’s Unite LA event, Unity Technologies debuted CineCast, an AI-powered camera system that is intended to change how people stream, watch and interact with games and eSports. CineCast, which will enter beta in 2019, lets them create and view different camera angles. Unity introduced this technology to offer a better viewing experience for watching games such as “Overwatch.” Although the Overwatch League created similar tools, they don’t reach everyone, and Unity hopes to attract more viewers to the games. Continue reading Unity’s AI-Enabled CineCast Allows Dynamic Game Viewing

A group of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists believe blockchain can be used with artificial intelligence to create an open marketplace and thus speed development of AI projects. University of California computer science professor Dawn Song and Hanson Robotics chief scientist Ben Goertzel are among the group that wager adoption of blockchain would create a wider distribution of data and algorithms. That would democratize the development of AI beyond the handful of large companies currently dominating the field. Continue reading Startups Use Blockchain to Democratize Artificial Intelligence

If Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft attain their goal, more of us will soon have our first experiences with augmented reality. These tech behemoths are hiring the talent and spending the money to make it a reality, with the hope that AR headsets will become lighter and sleeker — maybe even contact lenses. The experts note that all of our Internet-connected devices (IoT), paired with the cloud and AI, will dramatically “unlock the spaces around us.” But the potential applications also raise a number of potential privacy issues. Continue reading Technology Giants Envision the Future of Augmented Reality

Uninstalling an app is no longer a sufficient method to remove it from your digital life. App developers and the companies that serve them have figured out how to identify users that have uninstalled an app and then bombard them with ads to try to get them back. Among the companies that currently offer uninstall trackers (as part of an overall toolkit for developers) are Adjust, AppsFlyer, MoEngage, Localytics and CleverTap. T-Mobile US, Spotify Technology, Yelp and Bloomberg are among the users of such tools, although the trackers are not always used to send ads.

Continue reading Developers Are Able to Track Users Who Uninstall Their Apps

Apple chief executive Tim Cook is the latest and most prominent executive to call on Bloomberg to retract the claim that its technology supply-chain had been corrupted by Chinese surveillance microchips. According to two Bloomberg reports this month, Chinese spies infiltrated the technology supply chain with a surveillance microchip installed by Silicon Valley-based server company Supermicro. Those tiny chips ended up in the data center hardware of as many as 30 companies, including Amazon and Apple, added the report. Continue reading Apple’s Tim Cook Asks Bloomberg to Retract China Spy Story

Swedish-based Yubico, in business for 10 years, debuted its latest online security product, YubiKey 5, a device that plugs into a computer to authenticate the user with a “handshake” that is more secure than a password or authentication code. Google has come out with a similar device, the Titan Key. Both devices can also be used with some smartphones, by plugging into a port or via a wireless communication. These keys are the first arrivals in an Internet security strategy that might displace the password. Continue reading Google, Yubico Security Keys May Lead to End of Passwords

According to Amazon, Alexa can perform 50,000+ skills, from turning on lights to playing music. The tech giant is now focused on improving Alexa’s skills to compete with Google for voice assistant dominance. Last month, Amazon empowered Alexa developers, by allowing them to charge users for purchases within skills, with the ultimate goal of making Alexa a more comprehensive, powerful platform. Former Alexa head of product Ahmed Bouzid noted that the path is “exactly what we saw with the App Store for the iPhone.” Continue reading Amazon Unlocks Revenue Potential for Alexa Skill Developers