Tag: technology news

The CEO of the company, Tim Cook, recently visited the country to announce the store expansion there.

The maker of the wildly popular iPhone is making technology news yet again, as Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO used his trip to China to announce that the company will be expanding its stores into the country, opening up 25 new locations there.

These 25 new stores will be opening up at a pace that will span over the next two years.

This is considered to be important technology news, as the Chinese market is the largest in the world for mobile tech, and the iPhone has struggled to be able to grab hold of a very large share of that environment due to its premium price tag when compared to the vast array of more affordable competition. These new locations will more than double the number of Apple Stores in the country.

The current technology news reports that there are 15 in the country but that it will be growing by 25 more.

Tim Cook has already been expressing a number of different hopes that have to do with China. Among the more recent announcements have been that the Apple Pay mobile payments service would also be rolling out in the country. This could turn the Chinese population into the largest revenue generator for this American premium mobile device company.

Previously, there has been a certain amount of controversy between China and Apple, as the tech giant had released the latest smartphones, the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus, in the country by way of the online stores as well as the retail locations. That said, it was discovered that the iPhone 6 iCloud app had a malicious virus that was sending users to a fraudulent page that saved the credentials of the Chinese users for the iCloud.

That said, the virus did not manage to compromise the servers for the iCloud, which is a bit of positive technology news within that struggle. The iCloud login process had also managed to remain fully intact. This discovery has not yet been officially confirmed, but it would be far from the first mobile security attack that could occur between China and the United States.

Unified Computer Intelligence Corporation (UCIC) has released its new gadget

Last week, UCIC, a two-year old Canadian company based out of Toronto launched its new device called the Ubi, a small gadget about the size of a smoke detector that has been designed to control a variety of connected home devices via voice command.

Thermostats, lightbulbs and door locks can be managed with a simple voice command.

The purpose of the Ubi is to provide people with a simple way to control the many different connected devices within their home. Many home appliances and other devices can now be controlled over the internet. Some of these include lightbulbs, door locks and thermostats. However, the majority of these devices need to be coUBi ntrolled using its own specific web service or mobile app. The new gadget from UCIC aims to allow users to control everything with one device.

According to the official website, “Ubi is a WiFi connected, voice operated computer that allows for handsfree voice interaction in your home.” Using Android, more specifically Google’s speech-to-text software, the device takes a person’s commands and transforms them into action. It utilizes the most up-to-date voice recognition technology, as well as natural language understanding, speech triggering and speech synthesis to provide users with a way to interact with the world around them.

When it is turned on and linked to a WiFi network, the device continually listens for the phrase “Okay, Ubi”. Upon hearing this, it attempts to understand the commands it has been given. For instance, “What is the capital of Australia?” is answered using Google’s internet search.

It can also create calendar appointments, play music, as well as control a Nest thermostat and turn the heat up or down in a home or even open automated bedroom blinds. In addition, the device is equipped with humidity, temperature and light sensor and allows users to set automated alerts. For instance, it can be programmed to send a text message to a user when the lights are turned on in their home while they are away.

Ubi is not without its flaws.

As is the problem that is faced by most speech recognition devices, the Ubi will not work flawlessly all of the time. Although it works well when a person is close to the device, if they are giving a command from across the room and there is background noise (ex. TV) this makes it difficult for the device to sort out what has been said. According to UCIC CEO Leor Grebler, this “ends up really messing around with speech recognition.”

In the support and development of its technology, Unified Computer Intelligence Corporation has raised nearly $1 million ($230,000 via crowdfunding site Kickstarter) and has shipped over 2,500 early versions of the Ubi. Currently, the device costs $299.