Hound: Siri-like voice-powered digital assistant launched

Hound, the app that gives you a voice-powered digital assistant on your smartphone, launches on iOS and Android.

Hound aims to give you detailed information quickly using your voice. Ask Hound a question and it will soon respond with the answer, even if your questions are complex and the information you are looking for is very specific.

Hound can even remembering previous questions asked, so you can keep narrowing down your search. Ask Hound to search for a coffee shop for example, then ask it to search for one within a certain distance, then ask again for one with WiFi. Hound, which has a partnership with Yelp, will remember, and answer accordingly.

Hound also works with Expedia, searching your holiday requests for you, and is also linked to more simple tools such as a mortgage calculator and a game of Blackjack which you play by again, using your voice.

The company behind it, SoundHound, is also working with Uber, which will even enable you to hail a cab with it.

You can download the app now on SoundHound's website.

Virtual reality set to transform filmmaking

Chris Milk stepped onto a TED Conference stage and took the audience on an awe-inducing trip into the future of movies. While much of the early attention on virtual reality has focused on use of the immersive technology in video games, Milk and his US startup Vrse are using it to transform storytelling and filmgoing. "We have just started to scratch the surface of the true power of virtual reality," Milk said. "It's not a video game peripheral. It connects humans to other humans in a profound way... I think virtual reality has the potential to actually change the world." He had everyone in the Vancouver audience at TED , which ended Friday, hold Google Cardboard viewers to their eyes for what was billed as the world's collective virtual reality experience. Google Cardboard gear is literally that -- cardboard

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Here’s a list of phones which are first-of-their-kind. From feature phones to smartphones, flat screen to curved, fragile to shatterproof, mobile phones have evolved over the years. Although many industry analysts would like to call the current level of innovation reaching a stagnation point, there still are some manufacturers which have been able to surprise consumers by truly packing something different in their smartphones. We have compiled a list of phones which offer first-of-its-kind features, and they are not merely concepts. 1. Motorola X force - Shatterproof display Display today is the most vulnerable yet the most neglected element in modern smartphones. But Motorola finally paid heed to the fragile screen with the launch of the the Motorola X Force – the world’s first smartphone with a shatterproof display. The phone uses the Moto ShatterShield display technology, which is said to be an integrated system consisting of five layers designed from material...

10 years of Twitter: Key milestones in the micro-blogging site's decade-long history

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