How to get Cortana on Android devices

Microsoft announced it was opening up the beta for its Cortana on Android app, which had been in a closed beta since May. Yes, that means Android users who are interested can replace Google Now with Cortana, should they so desire.

On Monday
There are some limitations, however. Currently the wake-up phrase of "Hey, Cortana" that provides a hands-free experience is not available, and the app is limited to US users for now. Microsoft has said it's working on expanding to more markets in the future.
To sign up for the beta, you'll first need to visit the sign up page and click on the Become A Beta Tester button. Make sure to use the same Google account that's linked to your Android device if you're prompted to sign in.
Next, you'll need to visit this link to install the Cortana app on your Android device. It takes a few minutes for your Google account to gain the required permissions to see the app as available for download, so if you find yourself staring at an error page after clicking on the above link, give it a few minutes and try again.
It took about five minutes for the app to begin showing up for me.
After installation, you'll be asked a few setup questions in addition to a prompt asking you to sign in to your Microsoft account. Once setup is complete, you can find a similar experience to what you'll find on your Windows 10 PC, including synced reminders, local news and weather. Cortana is also capable of sending text messages or placing calls on your Android device via voice commands.

Bitcoin Creator Finally Identified (Maybe)

According to Wired Magazine, Satoshi Nakamoto,  the pseudonym given to the creator of digital currency Bitcoin may be none other than 44 year old Australian cryptoligist Craig Steven Wright.

‘Either Wright invented bitcoin,’ Wired’s report states, ‘Or he’s a brilliant hoaxer who very badly wants us to believe he did.’
Such revelations must be handled with care though. It is not the first time that the creator of the world’s most famous digital has been ‘unmasked.’ Back in March, 2014, Newsweek named a 64 Japanese American, Dorian Nakamoto, from Los Angeles as being the brains behind Bitcoin, and Newsweek ended up being sued after the claims proved to be false.

 

“Newsweek’s false report has been the source of a great deal of confusion and stress for myself, my 93-year old mother, my siblings, and their families.” Nakamoto said in a statement.
This time round though, Wired think it may definitely have its man for sure. According to Wired, leaked emails and documents between Wright and his lawyers prove that Wright is the man in charge of running Bitcoin.
The weight of Wired’s evidence does make for a credible claim, showing “publicly visible connections between Nakamoto and Wright:”
However, despite what in literal terms would add up to a mountain of circumstantial evidence, Wired itself admits that nothing they have discovered ‘fully proves that Wright is Nakamoto.’
Whether Wright is or isn’t the creator of Bitcoin, he is without doubt an interesting character.  The man has 2 PHD’s and once boasted of picking up new graduate degrees at the rate of one a year. He is also a serial entrepreneur having started companies as diverse as security consultancies to an actual Bitcoin bank. As well as all that, Wright is, apparently, an avowed climate change denier.

Microsoft Cortana now available on iOS and Android

Microsoft personal assistant, Cortana is now fully available for both Android and iOS …as long as you live in China, or the USA.

Not that that news will come as any surprise to most people who’ve followed recent app releases. As seems to be the case with growing numbers of apps across all platforms, software updates are becoming more and more staggered as the complexity and power of modern software increases.

Developing and launching core Windows apps such as Cortana for other platforms has been part of the “cloud first, mobile first,” direction Microsoft has been following for the last few years. A Beta version of Cortana was made  available on Android back in July, that anyone could sign up for. The iOS Beta however was much more limited, and was available to only 2,000 lucky testers because of the tight rules that Apple demands for iOS Beta test.
While not originally built for either Android or iOS, Cortana is supposed to be just as ‘intelligent’ as it on PC, and should also sync across all linked devices regardless of Operating System. That said, while Cortana on both Android and iOS is supposed to be as smart, it has lost something of its native core functionality that comes as standard on Windows powered devices. Microsoft state that:
“This includes toggling settings or opening apps, and the ability to invoke Cortana hands-free by saying “Hey Cortana.” The ‘Phone Companion’ app on your Windows 10 PC will help you install the Cortana app from the Google Play or Apple App Store onto your phone so you’ll be able to take the intelligence of Cortana with you, wherever you go.”
…which isn’t quite the same thing, if we’re honest. While Cortana does work well on Android and iOS, it’s hard to tell quite what Siri and Google Now users will make of it. Both of these native apps do inherently allow more in built functionality, and are just that little bit more capable. Not that Cortana can do all that much about it, especially when it comes to iOS. Apple’s tight control over what they will and won’t allow app developers to do on Apple devices has constrained Cortana significantly.
In that respect Cortana for Android and iOS might be more of a sales and marketing tool for Microsoft’s own hardware and software than a genuine native replacement.
Anyone using Windows 10 though that is looking for a level of cross device integration before anything else may however be able to overcome these limitations, and find Cortana a worthwhile addition to their life.

“Monkeying Around” With E-Learning Software

Admittedly, there are zoos, traveling animal shows, and other live-creature venues that create sub-par and even abusive conditions for their residents. But the nearly 100-year-old San Diego Zoo–actually founded after animals from the Panama-California Exposition were abandoned following the event–has long been regarded as the gold standard for not only the entertainment value of zoo exhibits, but for the preservation, study, and standards of caring for animals of any species. The zoo pioneered the concept of the “cageless” enclosure, as well as employees with conservationists and researchers to protect the entire species of each of its residents, not just the individual animals represented at the zoo.
Through its continuing efforts to raise the bar, the zoo has invested a lot of time and money in going digital. Whether it’s creating a paperless system for all in-house work (a goal the organization set for itself to be met by the end of this year) or reaching out to other organizations around the world with research and information, the group has taken tech and pushed it farther than anyone else in their field.
Now, e-learning software developed by the zoo in conjunction with DDI is setting the standard higher than ever before. While zoo staff looked primarily at the option to use it as an internal education and training system for its employees, there are already more than one hundred other subscribers to the content. The software contains instructional courses on animal care, behaviors, husbandry, and other pertinent information that allows the zoo staff to help other institutions reach the same level of professional and scientific care that they espouse.

Google and Nasa Show Off The Most Fastest Quantum Computer of this Era

Google and Nasa have given  the world a first proper look at its joint effort experimental quantum super computer.

Both companies have been experimenting with the cutting edge technology for over two years now, and the public display last Tuesday has led some commentators to wonder if Google and NASA might not just have won the race to build the world’s first fully viable and fully functional quantum computer.

 

When NASA and Google announced that they were to collaborate on building a quantum super computer, back in 2013, not all that many people were sure it would actually work. Some even  queried whether even if a quantum computer could be built if would be faster than a conventional super computer.
But now  it seems the garden shed sized black box currently being housed in NASA’s Advanced Super computing facility in the heart of Silicon valley might have silenced its critics. What’s even more surprising is that despite its size it’s actually considered to be quite small, for a super computer.
The D-Wave 2X quantum computer works on fundamentally different principles than both regular computers and also regular super computers. Whereas standard computers operate using bits that can be either 1 or 0, quantum computing uses bits that can use both 1 and 0 at the same time. It all gets a bit more complicated after that, but essentially what it all means is that quantum computing should be a lot faster, because in theory, quantum computers will be able to perform calculations at much greater speeds. That was the science bit.
While the D-Wave 2X is in effect just a prototype machine, Google and NASA engineers announced last Tuesday that it could execute a common benchmark optimization equation 100 million times faster than a conventional desktop PC running a single core processor. Of course while that does sound rather impressive, it should be noted that these days even budget smartphones typically come with quad core processors.  Still, it’s a pretty good analogy for all that.
Quantum computing may be the future of computing, but it will be a long time before anyone can order one online. Designing and building a quantum computer is beset with difficulties. Part of the reason that the D-Wave computer is so big is because of the refrigeration system needed to keep the quantum computing chip at practically absolute zero degrees. For the rest of us, that’s -273 degrees Celsius.
The head of Google’s Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab, Hartmut Nevin, said the latest test results were encouraging and intriguing, but that quantum computing still had a long way to go before it could be turned into anything resembling a practical technology. Google, NASA, and others working on the problems of Quantum computing still aren’t sure just what a fully commercially viable quantum computer could actually be used for.

Samsung New Galaxy S6 Edge+ plus and Galaxy Note 5 Release !!!!

Samsung on Thursday took the wraps off its most recent enormous screen cell phones in an offer to win back clients who've absconded to Apple and to other Android sellers. It additionally point by point arrangements to dispatch its versatile installments administration Samsung Pay and teased its next smartwatch.

The Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ go marked down in the US and Canada on August 21. Preorders in the US begin today at 3 p.m. In the US, the Note 5 will cost $200 with an agreement, and the S6 Edge+ will offer for $300 on contract.

Both telephones incorporate 5.7-inch screens, with the Edge's bending around the sides of the gadget. Both component a smooth metal-and-glass outline, a break from Samsung's past plastic gadgets. The organization moved to more premium materials recently with its Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge.

"Greater screens are incredible for moving in the middle of messages and imperative documents and looking through photographs and online networking or watching a motion picture," said JK Shin, the CEO of Samsung's versatile business, at a presentation in New York. "We are as yet wagering enormous."

The new gadgets are Samsung's most recent endeavor to recover its energy in the cell phone market. The organization has utilized telephones with greater screens to emerge from other Android merchants and Apple, however more organizations are discharging phablets they could call their own. Apple's presentation of the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus in September created Samsung's piece of the overall industry to tumble - from controlling about 33% of the cell phone market in 2012 and 2013, to sharing the title of No. 1 cell phone seller with Apple in the final quarter of 2014. Both organizations controlled around one-fifth of the business in that period, the first full quarter of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus deals, as per Gartner.

Samsung's two new phablets - half and halves in the middle of cell phones and tablets - come stacked with Android 5.1 Lollipop, 16MP back confronting cameras and 5MP front-confronting cameras. They likewise incorporate Samsung's natively constructed Exynos 7420 eight-center processors based on the same propelled innovation as the chips in the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. Both component quick charging and quick remote charging capacities, and close field correspondences chips that permit clients to pay for things with Samsung Pay by holding their telephones close retail deals terminals.



The S6 Edge+ arrives in a marginally littler bundle than the Note 5. Its measurements are littler, and it measures 153 grams versus 171 grams in the Note 5. It's additionally accessible in dark sapphire, gold platinum and - another shading - silver titanium. The Note 5 comes in dark sapphire and white pearl. The Note likewise has a stylus, while the Edge+ does not have that apparatus.

Under portion arranges, a 32 gigabyte Note 5 will set you back 20 installments of $33.42, and a 64GB Note 5 is 20 installments of $38.46. For the S6 Edge+, the 32GB telephone is 20 installments of $38.40.

The organization additionally flaunted a Keyboard Cover case for the Note 5, which includes a physical console top of its touchscreen.

Samsung has reported declining benefits for as far back as seven straight quarters, and it's cutting costs on its 3-month-old Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge gadgets to help deals. Alongside doing combating Apple at the high end of the business sector, Samsung has been battling off minimal effort Android cell phone producers, for example, China's Xiaomi and Huawei, alongside India's Micromax. Numerous clients in developing markets - the greatest zones of development for the moderating cell phone market - are picking the less expensive gadgets rather than Samsung's pricey handsets or its less lavish additionally lower quality gadgets.

Samsung customarily uncovers it most recent marquee phablets at the September IFA gadgets exchange show in Berlin at the IFA hardware exchange show. Be that as it may, this time around, it moved the date up by two or three weeks and moved its occasion to New York in what some accept is an endeavor to get a much prior bounce on Apple's next iPhone presentation - which likely will occur in ahead of schedule September.

On Thursday, Samsung additionally uncovered its arrangements to dispatch its versatile installment framework, Samsung Pay, in Korea on August 20 and in the US on September 28. The organization reported Samsung Pay in March.

"With the dispatches of these energizing new cell phones, we will open another period of portable installment," Shin said. "It is simple, safe, and above all, accessible essentially anyplace you can swipe a card."

It denote the passage of another real innovation player into a diversion that has yet to increase well known claim. For organizations like Samsung, portable installments - an approach to pay for merchandise and administrations by waving a cell phone close to the register as opposed to swiping a Visa - offer the possibility of building client dedication during an era when rivalry for cell phone purchasers is savage.

Toward the end of Thursday's presentation, Samsung played a feature teaser of its next smartwatch, which has a round screen. The watch, which Samsung has teased some time recently,