5/19/16

Google takes on Echo and Siri with 'Home' and an assistant

he company announced the new product Wednesday morning at its annual I/O developer conference. The event kicked off with a keynote by CEO Sundar Pichai, held outdoors at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, giving it a festive Coachella vibe.

The two hour presentation covered the latest Android N offerings, Google's new voice assistant (which will take on Siri), a virtual reality ecosystem and, of course, bots.

5/13/16

India says every phone must have a 'panic button' by 2017

India has announced new rules that require all mobile phones to have a "panic button," in order to protect women and prevent rape.

The regulations, which take force in 2017, were announced this week by India's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

Manufacturers are also required to include GPS in all phones by 2018, in order to help improve security.

Many phone manufacturers already include a panic response feature, but India does not currently have a centralized emergency call system. Because different phone numbers are required to reach police, medical and fire services, the feature has limited utility.

tech article 5/6

Self-cleaning laundry may be on the way

Researchers in Australia say they have found a way to alter fabric so that stains disappear after a few minutes of sun exposure.

They dip the fabric into a special solution that coats it with microscopic copper and silver particles. When hit with light, these particles jump to life and act a bit like bleach.

"They get excited, then they degrade organic matter," one of the researchers, Rajesh Ramanathan, told CNNMoney on Wednesday. The tiny materials don't eat into the cotton "because cotton is cellulose -- is very tough."

Ramanathan is part of a team from the Ian Potter NanoBioSensing Facility at RMIT University in