Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » juillet 24, 2015

BetaNews.Com (13 non lus)

Drive a Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler or Ram? It may be recalled due to potentially deadly hacks

Publié: juillet 24, 2015, 6:44pm CEST par Brian Fagioli
When it comes to cars, I only consider American manufacturers. Every car I've ever owned has been a Ford, but I am open to GM and Fiat Chrysler vehicles like Chevrolet, Jeep, Dodge and Ram. Lately, I fell in love with the Jeep Renegade -- an Italian-made American SUV -- which was tempting me from Ford.

Due to the reported security deficiencies in Jeep vehicles -- potentially deadly hacks -- I immediately came to my senses. No such vehicles in my future. While the Renegade is not impacted, the brand is, at least for now, tarnished for me. Today, Fiat Chrysler is voluntarily recalling the vehicles that are prey for hackers -- Dodge, Jeep, Chrysler and Ram are all on the list.

"FCA US LLC is conducting a voluntary safety recall to update software in approximately 1,400,000 U.S. vehicles equipped with certain radios.The recall aligns with an ongoing software distribution that insulates connected vehicles from remote manipulation, which, if unauthorized, constitutes criminal action", says Fiat Chrysler.

The car conglomerate further says it has "applied network-level security measures to prevent the type of remote manipulation demonstrated in a recent media report. These measures -- which required no customer or dealer actions -- block remote access to certain vehicle systems and were fully tested and implemented within the cellular network on July 23, 2015".

So, which vehicles are being recalled? Below is the complete list.
- 2013-2015 MY Dodge Viper specialty vehicles
- 2013-2015 Ram 1500, 2500 and 3500 pickups
- 2013-2015 Ram 3500, 4500, 5500 Chassis Cabs
- 2014-2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee and Cherokee SUVs
- 2014-2015 Dodge Durango SUVs
- 2015 MY Chrysler 200, Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger sedans
- 2015 Dodge Challenger sports coupes
This hack should not be taken lightly -- bad guys can remotely hijack a vehicle and cause it to crash. This can literally lead to death.

While this hack has apparently not been abused outside of some proof-of-success demonstrations, the company is smart to act swiftly -- I can foresee people blaming hacks on all of their accidents and speeding tickets. Quite frankly, telling an officer "the car started speeding on its own" could be a legitimate argument on an unpatched vehicle.

So how will the recall work? It is actually very cool. Rather than go to the dealer, Chrysler will mail you a USB flash drive that contains a firmware update. Hopefully it is easy for the non-technologically advanced owners. There is no word on whether the firmware will be hosted online so users can create their own drives, but I suspect someone will dump and share it eventually.

Are you scared that hackers may hijack your vehicle? Enter your VIN number here to find out if you are affected.

Photo Credit: shalunts/Shutterstock
EU wants to remove geo restrictions for TV content

Publié: juillet 24, 2015, 6:36pm CEST par Nabil Ansari

Six major US film studios, and Sky UK have been charged by the EU on the basis of unfair restriction of content across the European Union.

Competition chief Margrethe Vestager said that the European consumers want to watch the pay-TV channels of their choice regardless of their location in the EU. But according to their investigation, the film studios cannot restrict the content because of the licensing agreements. They believe that these studios might be in breach of the EU competition rules.

Disney, Paramount Pictures, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros, NBCUniversal are the six film studios that have been charged by the EU Commission. According to the Commission, when the British pay-TV company, Sky UK licenses films from these studio they are required to geo-block access to the content for people who are outside of the UK and Ireland, at the time of licensing films. This results in many European citizens being blocked who are in other parts of Europe.

In a press release, a EU spokesperson said that, "The Commission’s preliminary conclusion is that [these] clauses would constitute a serious violation of EU rules that prohibit anticompetitive agreement".

The Commission is now also investigating other major European broadcasters such as Canal Plus of France, Sky Italia of Italy, and Sky Deutschland of Germany. They say that the Statement of Objections is the first step in a full antitrust suit. But they would require a response from the companies being charged before the suit continues.

This is a part of the EU’s Digital Single Market Strategy that plans to boost Europe’s digital economy simply by making it easier for people to access digital content like movies and music from other countries, and for companies to operate easily across borders.

They believe that the customers must be able to access the content if they are paying for it regardless of the licensing agreements within specific countries.

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

Photo Credit: ojka/Shutterstock
New password manager aims to reach people who don't use password managers

Publié: juillet 24, 2015, 4:41pm CEST par Ian Barker

We're always being told that we need to use stronger passwords, but most of us tend to trade off security for real world convenience.

Minneapolis-based Password Boss is hoping to convert people with the launch of its free password manager and digital wallet aimed at consumers.

According to a Harris Interactive survey of 2,030 US adults conducted for Password Boss, 92 percent of consumers don’t use a password manager to store their passwords for online accounts. Instead 63 percent say they memorize them, while 43 percent say they write them down on paper. The survey also found that more than half of consumers (54 percent) agree that they need to change their online password habits.

"Most people aren't motivated to change their poor password habits," says Password Boss founder and CEO Steve Wise. "Despite the fact that four of ten companies were hacked in 2014, most of us continue to use and reuse crackable passwords that are easy to remember, store passwords in unsafe places and rely too much on clicking 'forget password' links. As consumers, we want things to be easy. That’s why we created Password Boss. By securely storing personal information and synchronizing it across all devices, Password Boss is the easiest way for people to safely login to websites, access their accounts and shop online".

Password Boss is the only free password manager that allows people to store an unlimited number of passwords, choose where their data is securely stored and share any item in their account with anyone they choose.

It uses 256-bit AES encryption to protect data and synchronizes consumers’ accounts across all of their devices instantaneously for easy access to their passwords and personal data at any time and from anywhere. It also provides a personal security score with recommendations on how consumers can increase their level of online security.

Password Boss is available free for download on Windows PCs and tablets, as well as iOS and Android mobile devices. There’s also a premium, paid version with extra features including features like online backups, 2-step verification and unlimited, secure password sharing. For more details visit the Password Boss website.
Google offers lots of free cloud storage to take on Amazon Web Services

Publié: juillet 24, 2015, 4:38pm CEST par David Curry

The launch of Cloud Storage Nearline brings Google firmly into the battle against Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and all the other cloud platforms currently available, but, unlike search, Google is way behind the competition.

To gain some early customers, Google is offering an enormous 100 petabytes (100 million gigabytes) of storage for free. To a single customer, that is enough to last a lifetime, but for a medium sized business it may last a few months.

Cloud Storage Nearline is focused on offering document, file and folder storage for all types of content. This makes it applicable to almost every company that does business on the web.

Google plans to offer 1GB for less than a penny, meaning customers are likely to save over £6,000 with the Amazon Web Services deal. The offer also extends to other cloud services, meaning any customer using cloud storage for a business may be entitled to some free storage.

That said, Google is actively promoting Cloud Storage Nearline against Amazon Web Services. It is pretty obvious the two companies would clash, since AWS is in first place by most metrics on users and income.

Even though Google has kept most of its business customer-to-customer, it has tried to expand into enterprise level storage, apps and security. Some of these have worked out, but Google is still an outsider compared to Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and HP, who have all invested billions in the enterprise market.

Amazon and Google are both well known for long-term goals that harm the short-term income of the company. Google might be willing to drop £6,000 for a new client, but we could see AWS offering even better terms to stay on as a customer and not leave for Google.

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.

Photo Credit: wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock
What you need to know before installing Windows 10 (including you might be waiting MONTHS for the upgrade!)

Publié: juillet 24, 2015, 3:05pm CEST par Wayne Williams
Microsoft has started sending out emails to Windows users who have reserved their copy of Windows 10 in advance of the launch next week. As reported previously, you probably won’t get your copy on the big day -- Microsoft says "After July 29, when Windows 10 is ready for your device, it will download in the background. You’ll then get a notification to schedule your upgrade right away or at another time that’s convenient for you".

Before you do install it, you’ll want to make sure your PC or tablet is ready for the upgrade.

Firstly, check your hardware meets or exceeds the minimum requirements. If it’s running another version of Windows then it should be fine as the requirements are quite low:
- Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) or Windows 8.1 (Update).
- 1GHz processor.
- 1GB memory for Windows 10 32-bit; 2GB for 64-bit.
- 16GB free hard disk space for Windows 10 32-bit; or 20GB for 64-bit.
- DirectX 9 (or later) compatible graphics card.
- 800 x 600 display resolution.
Naturally, the new OS won’t be compatible with all software or hardware you have. So be prepared for that eventuality. The Get Windows 10 app will scan for application compatibility in advance and alert you to any issues so there are no nasty surprises.

The installer will remove any incompatible anti-malware products and OEM applications during installation (you’ll be informed).

You will lose some previous Windows features in the upgrade including Windows Media Center, Windows 7 Desktop Gadgets, Solitaire, Minesweeper and Hearts games.

You should plan for the installation to take an hour to complete, although this will vary. If your target device has an SSD it will probably be a fraction of that -- Microsoft says around 20 minutes. On older devices it may take over an hour to complete. Of course, that’s after all the installation files have downloaded in the background.

The version of Windows you’ll receive will depend on the version of Windows you’re upgrading.

If you haven’t yet reserved your copy of Windows 10 it’s not too late to do so. Just open the Get Windows 10 app that should be shown in your system tray (Windows 7 and 8.x only). If the app isn’t there, follow the instructions here to get it. You can request an upgrade after July 29 -- the app will remain in your system tray, ready for you to make your decision.

The interesting thing is Microsoft says "Once Windows 10 is available, we’ll begin notifying devices that their free upgrade is available. Just open the Get Windows 10 app to schedule your upgrade. Note: Some notifications will go out as soon as Windows 10 is available; others may go out in the weeks or months following".

Months?

Microsoft is hedging its bets of course, but that’s an intriguing caveat. It will be interesting to see how smoothly the roll out goes next week.

Have you reserved your copy of Windows 10?
Cloud security myths busted

Publié: juillet 24, 2015, 2:57pm CEST par Anna Beletskaya

The benefits of cloud are vast and significant. Cloud enables rapid deployment, provisioning, and scaling of IT resources and data. It also shortens development time, reduces waste, and lowers costs. But despite increasing cloud adoption rates, some companies still do not rush to move its workloads and applications to the cloud due to some common myths and delusions that are more fluff than fact.

When organizations are considering moving to the cloud one of the first questions asked is, "Is it secure?" It’s a reasonable question, since there have been a lot of fears and doubts circulating across the industry around this point -- particularly with some high profile breaches in 2014. While security is always a priority when it comes to business, several of these concerns are much more bark than bite. So, let’s demystify those concerns and give peace of mind for organizations looking to move forward with a transition to the cloud.

1. Cloud Environments Are Easier to Attack

Two identical servers have the same potential vulnerability risk level, no matter if they're located in your company's private data center or within a cloud provider's data center. The data protection’s level relies less on the machines and more on the security state of each data center environment. At this point, many companies store their most valuable data in private clouds that they protect and maintain on their own. But if you are managing a few in-house IT resources of a small company, an external provider likely has more security expertise than you do.

So the clouds aren’t easier to attack, since the vulnerability depends on the security posture of the data center itself, which is provided by various security tools and methods.

2. Customers in the same cloud can attack each other.

Within a public cloud, multiple tenants share processing, storage, and other computing services within a cloud services provider's data centers. It might make you imagine that it's easy for one tenant to steal another tenant's data due to the concept of shared resources. But in fact, virtualization provides strong partitions between tenants within the data center, so that they're effectively isolated from each other. Unless your data center is owned by a competitor that would love to snitch your data, it’s very unlikely you’ll become an intended attack victim by a fellow customer.

3. You can't control where your data resides in the cloud.

Data residency is a key concern, and many countries’ regulations do not allow exporting of personal data or its storage to another country. Knowing where your data resides requires transparency from your provider. You should also know where your data travels and how it is protected either at rest or over transition. This myth can be easily addressed by choosing a global cloud service provider, which provides secure cloud hosting solutions and operates data centers in multiple countries.

Putting your cloud fears aside will allow you to see the benefits of cloud solutions -- such as lower costs, smarter resources usage, and expanded capacity. You just need to rely on a trustworthy cloud solutions provider, which delivers the security and data protection level that will satisfy your requirements, and can provide you with a fully managed secure private cloud or a separate tenant within the public cloud.

Image Credit: Andrey tiyk / Shutterstock

Anna Beletskaya is a Support Engineer at PlexHosted, having joined the PlexHosted team in early 2014 and in a short term has gained a high-level expertise in SharePoint hosting cloud solutions, as well as a number of other Microsoft products (Exchange, Lync) and McAfee SaaS email protection service. Anna is a qualified member of the company’s support team, which provides expert customer support for superior customer satisfaction. PlexHosted, founded in 2010, is a cloud based hosting company that specializes in managed SharePoint site deployments and associated infrastructure applications.
Best Windows apps this week

Publié: juillet 24, 2015, 1:47pm CEST par Martin Brinkmann

One-hundred and thirty-eight in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps and games released for Windows in the past seven days.

Microsoft's promotion for Windows 10 is in full swing currently. The new operating system launches on July 29, officially, and will find its way on to millions of end user systems thanks to Microsoft promoting it via Windows Update.

This week saw only a couple of interesting app and game releases (mostly games).

As always, if I missed an app or game that has been released this week that you believe is particularly good, let me know in the comments below or notify me via email instead.

Discounts This Week

The new Windows 10 Store does not list Red Stripe Deals yet, therefore no deals listings until this changes.

Best app of the week

Graffiti Grinder

Graffiti Grinder is an endless runner game in which you mark the city with your graffiti while trying to avoid obstacles such as pedestrians or the infamous Anti-Graffiti squad that is chasing you.

You collect coins while playing the game which you can spend in the shop to improve your abilities.

Spend money to improve the double jump or enable a magnet that collects coins from further away. There are also one time upgrades that give you a head start or a second life.

The game itself plays like most runner games. You "run" automatically and only control jumping while on the move.

While that may sound simple, it can become quite hectic as the game throws lots of obstacles at you.

Other apps

Earth 3D ($2.99, free trial available)

Earth 3D is an interactive 3D globe offering political and physical maps.

It features more than 1700 geographical objects such as cities, places and structures, that you can rotate and zoom using mouse and keyboard, or touch.

The app supports different view modes you can switch between. Natural View for instance displays weather information when you activate it, while the paid add-ons Animal World and Sky Map add other view modes to it.

One interesting feature of the app is that you get detailed descriptions of items you click on. The information appears to be taken exclusively from Wikipedia.

Only the Weather View mode requires Internet access.

Queen's Garden: A relaxing Match 3 Game with Flowers and Gardening ($4.49, free trial available)

The runner up for the longest game title in Windows Store is a match-3 type of game that differentiates itself from other games of the genre in three ways.

First, it features a relax mode which does not pressure you at all and does away with time or move limits.

The game features an "improve the Royal garden" subgame in which you spend the money you earn while playing on garden improvements.

Lastly, it offers a "find in picture" game mode.

Mars Pop

From the creators of Talking Tom comes Mars Pop, a bubble shooter that you play against the computer or friends.

The game mechanics are similar to classic bubble shooters such as Puzzle Bubble, but the multiplayer component adds a competitive aspect to it.

You may play against random opponents on the Internet or against friends, but the latter option only becomes available after linking your Facebook account to the game.

You need to survive longer than your opponent to win the game.

One for Eleven

One for Eleven if a football (that is soccer, if you are from the US) management game in which you compete against other players in various supported leagues.

The game features real league and player information but requires that you link your Facebook account to it before you can get started.

Once you are in you take the role of a club manager who recruits and scouts players, negotiates contracts, manages team formation and tactics, and much more.

The game walks you through a ridiculous number of tutorial screens before you can start playing it. While you learn the basics this way, it is completely overwhelming at this early stage.

Shuffle

Shuffle is a word puzzle game in which you need to put letters back in the correct order to form words.

Your goal in the game is to reshuffle letters on the screen to build the correct words and proceed to the next stage.

The game features several difficulty levels and a time attack mode that puts extra pressure on you.
CCleaner strengthens Windows 10 compatibility

Publié: juillet 24, 2015, 1:36pm CEST par Nick Peers

Piriform Software has released CCleaner 5.0.8 FINAL and CCleaner 5.0.8 Portable, the latest builds of its Windows cleaning tool.

The new build promises compatibility with the RTM build (10240) of Windows 10, and adds support for Microsoft Edge Browser Monitoring to the Professional version of the software. By adding Edge to the Browser Monitoring feature in CCleaner Pro, users can now automatically clean the browser whenever it’s closed (or be prompted to do so).

In addition to the new Pro-only feature, CCleaner 5.0.8 also handles the new Edge browser better too in both free and paid-for editions, implementing improvements to the cleaning of saved passwords and the browser cache.

In addition to strengthening Edge support, users of Opera 30 should also enjoy improved session cleaning in the new build.

Other changes to app cleaning see support extended to Foxit Reader 7 and RealTimes, while Avira Antivirus, BlueStacks and Media Player Classic cleaning have all been improved too. The new build also promises better support for Include and Exclude wildcards.

One final change for Pro users sees a new "Open CCleaner" option added to the System and Browser Monitoring functions.

The update is rounded off with the usual translation updates, minor GUI tweaks and unspecified bug fixes.

CCleaner 5.0.8 FINAL and CCleaner 5.0.8 Portable are available now as freeware downloads for PCs running Windows XP or later. A Professional version offering additional features including real-time monitoring and complete system cleaning is also available, and the best place to get it is the Downloadcrew Software Store, where it costs just $17.46, an exclusive discount of 30 per cent off the MSRP.
Twitch.TV dumps Flash for HTML5

Publié: juillet 24, 2015, 1:33pm CEST par David Curry

Twitch.TV is the most popular platform for professional and casual gamers to livestream, but it has always run slower than the competition. This is partly due to Twitch’s server support, but also due to the Flash video player it built being a clunky mess for users on slow connections.

This has been worked on over the years, but retaining Flash support is starting to become a burden for Twitch.TV, so much so the company has announced HTML5 and JavaScript support will be coming in the next few months.

Livestreaming will be the first destination for the new HTML5 player, which should bring improved performance and no need for a plug-in. Videos will be next on the list, although for now these will still require the Flash player.

Twitch.TV is actually quite late to the party, considering Google moved YouTube to HTML5 in 2014. Netflix is another streaming service planning on moving to HTML5, once Microsoft Silverlight expires in 2018.

Adobe Flash was already seen as inefficient, and the recent vulnerability leaks only add to the pressure to remove it. Facebook, Google and Apple have all called for its demise, accepting open-source alternatives.

Twitch.TV has continued its upward rise to the top of the food chain in the gaming world, but YouTube has plans to launch its own livestreaming service in the near future. YouTube is reportedly planning to invest in exclusive contracts with pro-gaming teams and players, alongside offering 60 frames per second and 2K playback.

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.
Instantly invert your screen colours with NegativeScreen

Publié: juillet 24, 2015, 11:56am CEST par Mike Williams

Optimizing your PC’s screen colors cuts eyestrain, reduces headaches, and helps you sleep at nights. It can be surprisingly easy, too -- set up a program like SunsetScreen and it works largely automatically.

There may still be times when your display is too light, or maybe too dark, though, and that’s where NegativeScreen comes in. It’s a tiny freeware app for Windows 7 and later which can invert your screen colors on demand.

Unzip the download (an impressively small 71KB), run NegativeScreen, and you’re able to toggle the "negative" effect by pressing Win+Alt+N. The entire screen -- the desktop, videos, games, anything accessing the screen through Windows -- updates right away.

This can make colors look a little weird, but NegativeScreen offers various other inversion modes which might be able to help. Typically they’ll still try to reduce glare by inverting black/ white shades, but keep colors more or less the same, although others don’t actually invert colors at all (there are red and grayscale modes).

None of these effects will work in every situation, but that’s not a problem. If NegativeScreen’s inversion gets in the way at any point, hitting the hotkey again toggles it off and returns you to normal.

This is all useful enough, but what we didn’t expect was NegativeScreen’s extreme configurability. If you’d like to change one of the hotkeys, edit an inversion mode, maybe create a new effect of your own -- greenscale sounds good to us -- then all you have to do is edit the negativescreen.conf file. It’s all relatively easy, but if you do need any help then comments in the file tell you more.
Sony unveils PlayStation 4 remote

Publié: juillet 24, 2015, 11:04am CEST par Phoebe Jennelyn Magdirila

Sony is set to release an officially-licensed remote control for the PlayStation 4 in the fall, which is intended to provide easy navigation and media playback functionality.

The PlayStation’s remote will work through Bluetooth and will allow the user to control up to four devices including the PS4, TV, set top box and audio receiver.

The remote will also have specific buttons for PS4 Home and Power.

Produced by hardware maker PDP, the remote will go on sale in the US from October 31 for $30, while, at the moment, UK pricing and availability is unknown.

Despite the availability of other controllers, the PlayStation remote is the first to be officially endorsed by Sony. However, the company has previously produced its own media/Blue-ray disc remote for the PS3, which was also compatible with Sony amplifiers.

The company has also recently announced the launch of its video game streaming platform, PlayStation Now, in the UK and signaled its intention to delve into the world of drones with a new winged machine.

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Net Communities Ltd Publication. All rights reserved.
Nintendo and Facebook partner on new Super Mario Maker video game

Publié: juillet 24, 2015, 2:26am CEST par Brian Fagioli

The first video game that I ever fell in love with was Super Mario Brothers for the Nintendo Entertainment System. While I had a second-hand Atari 2600 with Mario Brothers, it did not compare to the magic of the "Super" variant on Nintendo's console. While I bought every home Nintendo console since the NES, I did not buy the most recent one, the Wii U. While Nintendo consoles have always been about the software -- hardware specifications be damned -- I felt that company was too conservative with this newest console and delivered a sub-par product.

The upcoming Wii U exclusive game, Super Mario Maker, however, has me wishing I had the console. Much like the classic Nintendo games Excite Bike and Wrecking Crew, the user can create and edit levels. In other words, anyone that buys the game can contribute to the Mario universe, and even share it online. Today, Nintendo announces that it is partnering with Facebook for a very special level in the game.

"Super Mario Maker is the ultimate evolution of the Super Mario Bros. series and lets players’ imaginations run wild. For the first time ever, friends can have fun playing through levels they create for one another. The Wii U GamePad controller makes it so easy for anyone to create levels that it feels like simply sketching out ideas on paper. Players with Internet access can enjoy a seemingly endless supply of inventive Mario levels inspired by Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World and New Super Mario Bros. U from players around the world", says Nintendo.

Nintendo further explains ,"the Super Mario Maker hackathon is exclusively for Facebook employees to design a special level in the game. At the event, participants will be using the demo version of the game that drew rave reviews at the recent E3 video game trade show to create levels using the in-game tools that will become available to a wider audience when the game launches exclusively for Wii U on the 11th of September. The event will culminate with designers presenting their creations to a panel of judges from Nintendo and Facebook. The winning individual or team has the opportunity to make the level available for Super Mario Maker owners to play after the game’s launch".

How very cool. Facebook employees will create a special level that will be playable by all people that purchase Super Mario Maker. In other words, Facebook is contributing to the development of the game. Even cooler, however, is that anyone can contribute levels -- that is the beauty of the game, Nintendo has created a simple platform for anyone to be a level creator and game contributor!

Are you excited to play the Facebook level in Super Mario Maker? Tell me in the comments.
Huge improvements made to Google Voice transcription accuracy

Publié: juillet 24, 2015, 12:27am CEST par Mark Wilson

If you're a Google Voice user, you'll almost certainly have experienced its frequently insane attempts at voicemail transcriptions. There are times when these offer some hilarious relief in the middle of a dull day, but they also stand in the way of, you know… actually understanding what's been said.

Transcriptions that are not accurate are less than helpful, and Google has taken steps to up its game. Using sample voicemails from volunteers, it has been possible to improve voicemail transcriptions so there are far fewer errors. The new and improved system is available right now, and Google is keen for you to try it out.

By working with voicemails offered up by users, Google has been able to use real world data to bring dramatic improvements to speech-to-text conversion. The development is far from over, and the company says that work continues to make things even better. Google software engineer Zander Danko says:

We asked users if they would kindly share some of their voicemails for research and system improvements. Thanks to those who participated, we are happy to announce an improved voicemail system in Google Voice and Project Fi that delivers more accurate transcriptions. Using a (deep breath) long short-term memory deep recurrent neural network (whew!), we cut our transcription errors by 49%.

If you're yet to try out Google Voice, you can sign up for an account here. For those of you already signed up, have you noticed an improvement?

Photo credit: filip robert / Shutterstock