Tech Talk

Segway’s story can’t be told without rehashing its entry onto the scene as one of the most hyped tech products of the early 21st century. Alternately codenamed “Ginger” and “IT,” the personal mobility device engendered serious conversations among futurists about the ways in which it would transform sidewalks and cities. Nearly 20 years after its initial release, however, the two-wheeled Segway PT is done . Parent company Ninebot is ceasing production of Dean Kamen’s best-known invention, as it lays off 21 employees at its New Hampshire plant who worked on the project. As is so often the case, things didn’t go as expected. Along the way, the Segway found some love among tour guides and cops. Certainly everyone’s favorite Kevin James film wouldn’t have been the same without it. Ultimately, the company sold about 140,000 models over the two-decade life of the product, making it, at best, a personal mobility niche. In April 2015, the company was acquired by Ninebot. The Chinese robotic

France released StopCovid three weeks ago . The government is holding a press conference today to give an update on the app. In particular, this conference is a good opportunity to share some numbers. Over the past three weeks, 1.9 million people downloaded the app on the App Store or Play Store. Out of those 1.9 million people, 1,814,048 users opened the app and activated StopCovid. You can disable StopCovid and delete your personal data whenever you want. 23,953 people have deactivated the app over the past three weeks. And 460,000 people simply uninstalled the app. Given that the app doesn’t ask you to register with your name and address, the government has little information about who’s using the app and where. The government will run surveys to learn more. Over the last week alone, 190,000 people downloaded the app but “tens of thousands” of people uninstalled it. The government says that people may feel like the coronavirus outbreak is over in France — there are still new ca

In iOS 14 for iPhone and iPod touch , widgets can be pinned in different sizes on any home screen page, providing useful information at a glance. The same can't be said for iPad . In iPadOS 14, the use of widgets is limited to the Today View sidebar that only appears on the first screen of apps when viewing in landscape mode. When viewed in portrait mode, Widgets disappear along with the Today View and the user's apps are automatically rearranged in a typical grid to fill the screen. In other respects, Widgets in ‌iPadOS‌ 14 share the same new functionality as widgets in ‌iOS 14‌. Users can create a Smart Stack of widgets, which uses machine learning to surface the right widget based on time, location, and activity. Widgets also can be customized for work, travel, sports, entertainment, and other areas of interest. Currently, the App Library feature is missing in ‌iPadOS‌ 14, although it could possibly appear in a later beta. Apart from this and the limitation of wid

Sparrow Exchange , a Bitcoin and Ethereum options trading platform based in Singapore, announced today it has raised $3.5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by HDR Group, the owner of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, with participation from Signum Capital, Du Capital and FinLab EOS VC. The funding will be used to develop Sparrow’s platform and launch new products and services. Earlier this month, for example, it introduced an iOS-optimized mobile interface , and has other releases coming soon. Since launching a year ago, Sparrow has seen over $150 million in options trading volume. In a press statement, FinLab EOS VC Fund managing director Stefan Schuetze said, “We are excited to invest in Sparrow, which is developing the next generation of financial products by leveraging EOSIO for their on-chain settlement layer.” Despite the pandemic, the company says its seen an increase in volume over the past few months, as Bitcoin trading reached record highs in several countrie

It’s more than four years since major tech platforms signed up to a voluntary pan-EU Code of Conduct on illegal hate speech removals. Yesterday the European Commission’s latest assessment of the non-legally binding agreement lauds “overall positive” results — with 90% of flagged content assessed within 24 hours and 71% of the content deemed to be illegal hate speech removed. The latter is up from just 28% in 2016. However the report cards finds platforms are still lacking in transparency. Nor are they providing users with adequate feedback on the issue of hate speech removals, in the Commission’s view . Platforms responded and gave feedback to 67.1% of the notifications received, per the report card — up from 65.4% in the previous monitoring exercise. Only Facebook informs users systematically — with the Commission noting: “All the other platforms have to make improvements.” In another criticism, its assessment of platforms’ performance in dealing with hate speech reports found i

Apple has elected to drop support for Force Touch in watchOS 7, indicating that the Apple Watch Series 6 will not include the firm-press gesture from the outset. Force Touch used in the Weather app on watchOS 6 Force Touch can be used in ‌watchOS 6‌ to reveal hidden menus on ‌Apple Watch‌, such as options to clear notifications and customize the current Watch Face. These options will no longer be accessed using the Force Touch gesture when watchOS 7 is released. Apple's new Human Interface Guidelines for developers making apps for watchOS 7 confirms the change: Firm press and long press. In versions of watchOS before watchOS 7, people could press firmly on the display to do things like change the watch face or reveal a hidden menu called a Force Touch menu. In watchOS 7 and later, system apps make previously hidden menu items accessible in a related screen or a settings screen. If you formerly supported a long-press gesture to open a hidden menu, consider relocating the me

The law firm is currently asking Pixel 3 owners to share the problems they experienced and investigating whether or not the defects are hardware related. What you need to know Google may be slapped with a class-action lawsuit by a law firm for the Pixel 3's battery drain and camera issues. The law firm is currently investing whether the defects reported by Pixel 3 owners are hardware related. Some Pixel 3 owners had been complaining about battery issues on Google's support pages since April last year. In February this year, Google started paying out cash settlements for the original Pixel's class action lawsuit . Just two days after sending out settlement checks to Pixel and Pixel XL owners with defective microphones, the company began paying settlement checks to Nexus 6P owners with bootloop issues. It now looks like Google may soon have to deal with another class-action lawsuit due to the battery drain and camera issues plaguing some of its Pixel 3 series phones