TechBooky

Google Assistant just got even smarter. At the IFA tech show in Berlin, Google announced that the Google Assistant is now bilingual, making it the first voice assistant to be able to seamlessly switch between two different languages. Starting today, Google Assistant"s new bilingual support should make it more useful in homes where family members speak two languages—meaning you can now speak to the Google Assistant (on phones and smart speakers) in any two of the following languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, or Japanese (more will be supported in the coming months). Users will have to select which two languages they want their Google Assistant to understand. For example, if your family speaks English and German, you can ask the Google Assistant questions in either of those two languages interchangeably. Also, For user who have Google Home and a Chromecast linked to your TV, you"ll now be able to see more visual results on the big screen. The Assistant now di...

Educate a child,  educate a nation—with this in mind the tech giant Facebook, has announced the launch of a new set of educational resources focused on helping young people think critically and behave thoughtfully online. The new site which will be called Digital Literacy Library , is aimed at educating children between the age 11 to 18, and will also help address topics like privacy, reputation, identity exploration, security, safety, wellbeing and more. Image: Facebook Facebook"s Global Head of Safety Antigone Davis and Global Safety Programs Manager Karuna Nain wrote in a blog post . "We know that educators already manage busy classrooms and learning environments,". And These lessons are designed to make it as easy as possible to integrate them into formal and informal learning environments. These lessons work well together or on their own, in after-school programs or at home, and can be modified to incorporate educators" own experiences and ideas." “There ...

Good news for Nigerians. Google Station, the web giant’s public Wi-Fi service, has gone live in Nigeria. As it has done in four other countries—India, Indonesia, Mexico and Thailand—where the service has been launched, Google will partner with local service providers for infrastructure and locations while it offers a cloud-based platform and devices to provide and manage hot-spots. The Wi-Fi service is not the Google’s first internet access-focused initiative in Africa. In Ghana and Uganda, it has launched Project Link through which it builds fiber-optic networks to help local internet service providers and mobile operators provide faster broadband. The company is also in talks with telecom operators in Kenya to launch Project Loon, an ambitious plan to beam internet to users using solar-powered high-altitude balloons. Facebook also has a history of internet access projects in Africa, including Express wifi and Free Basics. Google Nigeria Country Director Juliet ...

If you’re a fan of Apple’s photo printing service, you won’t like this shocking news one bit. According to a new message popping up in the Photos app , and After 16 years, Apple is killing off its Photo Print Products service, a service that has been part of iPhoto and subsequently Photos. Apple Photo Prints Products grew from just supporting simple prints to producing albums, calendars, and photo books. The message, first spotted by 9to5Mac , instructs users of macOS 10.13.6 to make their “final purchases” by September 30 of this year. MacOS Mojave’s Photo app has already scrapped any mention of the service. The message also encourages users to download the Photo Project Extension from the Mac App Store to get access to a range of third-party printing services. These services include Mimeo Photos, Wix, GoodTimes, WhiteWall, and Shutterfly. Following the news, shares of Shutterfly and Wix were up 2 and 3.1 percent, respectively. Here’s the messa...

In the wake of the privacy scandal with Facebook Inc. that also implicates Alphabet"s, Jalon Lanier, an influential tech evangelist during the TED 2018 conference in Vancouver suggested that Facebook and Google should review their business model with inclusion of ad-free options. Often referred to as the father of virtual reality, Lanier told the Vancouver event that users who do not want their private information toyed with should have the liberty to pay for the services via a monthly subscription fee or whatever option that best suits the internet companies. This model should be considered as an alternative to overly relying on ad placements. Mark Zuckerberg, last month, had a fallout with Tim Cook, Apple CEO who criticised Facebook"s documented data collection technique which involves harvesting massive amounts of users" data and using them targeted advert purposes.  He argued further that the users" profile which the social network has built should not exist bec...

Uber shuts UberRush down. UberRush, an on-demand delivery service that connects shared economy couriers with businesses and individuals who need to schedule on-demand pick-ups and deliveries. It is an incredibly convenient service that connects people with local goods, food, and things. Individuals can have practically anything they want delivered to their door. In 2014, Uber launched “Uber rush” – an on-demand delivery service that will operate in major metropolitan markets like San Francisco, Chicago, and New York. Over the weekend, Rush team New York sent out an email to customers informing them that the service will end in June 2018, the emails reads according to TechCrunch : “At Uber, we believe in making big bold bets, and while ending UberRUSH comes with some sadness, we will continue our mission of building reliable technology that serves people and cities all over the world,” Uber’s NYC RUSH team wrote to customers. Also added “We...

Often times, we"ve had to go to places we rarely know - for that little drop-in visitation, or to close an important business deal. Places we know or perhaps have heard little or nothing about. With the help of maps, we"ve been able to avoid a couple of messy ‘lost puppy’ situations. Thanks to Google Maps, which seem to be the most useful invention of all times and to add an icing to the cake, it"s now available in 39 different languages. The update was announced today in a blog post by the company. Here is a brief list of the languages —Afrikaans, Danish, Filipino, Hebrew, Icelandic, Mongolian, Serbian, Slovak, Swahili, Turkish, Vietnamese, Albanian, Amharic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bosnian, Burmese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, Georgian, Hebrew, Icelandic, Indonesian, Kazakh, Khmer, Kyrgyz, Lao, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Mongolian, Norwegian, Persian, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Uz...

It is no longer news that the ride-hailing giants has businesses in most part of the world including Southeast Asia , but the news is that Uber today Monday, signed a deal to sell its business  to SouthEast Grab ,  it"s rival in the region.  As part of the procurement, Uber will take a 27.5 percent stake in Grab, with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi joining Grab"s board. Grab will take over all of Uber"s businesses, including its ride-sharing, food delivery and payments and financial services in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, according to a statement. Asia isn"t the first place Uber is retreating. The ride-hailing company sold its operation in China to Didi Chuxing its rival, which is one of the country"s biggest ride sharing provider, in August 2016. Rumours about Grab’s acquisition have been swirling since Softbank an investor with Grabs confirmed its investment in Uber last December. Grab has raised more th...