Cortana, Microsoft’s digital voice assistant, is one of the biggest additions to Windows 10. Like Siri on the iPhone, Cortana gives you access to all sorts of different hands-free features. Here’s a handy guide on how to set up and use Cortana, train it to know your voice, and customize it to your liking.
The post How to set up and use Cortana appeared first on Digital Trends.
Source: Digital trends
Elon Musk’s automaker has quit the investigation led by the agency, and the sniping is getting serious.
Source: Wired
The social network has pushed back against consumer-focused legislation in places like Illinois and California.
Source: Wired
Matthias Müller is out as Volkswagen CEO, amid a diesel emissions scandal that shook the world’s largest car maker. The company confirmed the move today, naming Brand Chief Herbert Diess to the top job in his stead.
Müller had only been in the top role for three years, and while the chief executive was never charged in the scandal, many in the industry believe that he didn’t impose changes quickly enough after information came to light.
This time last year, the company was hit with a $2.8 billion penalty in the U.S., bringing its costs for the scandal up to around $30 billion, according to NBC. Volkswagen was one of a number of automakers caught adjusting emissions during laboratory testing, in order to meet environmental standards.
Earlier this week, the company announced that it was considering replacing its CEO. Today the company issued a statement thanking Müller for his time during what it referred to as “the greatest challenge in its history.”
Board member Hans Dieter Pötsch adds, effusively, “Together with his team, he also fundamentally realigned the Group’s strategy, initiated cultural change and, with great personal commitment, made sure that the Volkswagen Group not just stayed on track but is now more robust than ever before. For that, he is due the thanks of the entire Company.”
VW’s new CEO, Herbert Diess, joined the company in 2015 after spending time at BMW. As The BBC notes, Diess has already proven a divisive character for the company due to battles with the unions and attempts to cut costs at the company.
Source: TechCrunch
Subscription biller Zuora was well-received by stock market investors on Thursday, following its public debut. After pricing its IPO at $14, the company closed at $20, valuing the company around $2 billion.
It was also much higher than expected. The company said in its filings that it planned to price its shares between $9 and $11, before it raised that range to $11 to $13.
Founder and CEO Tien Tzuo told TechCrunch that he believes “a bet on us is really a bet on an entire shift to a new business model, to a subscription economy.” He is optimistic that subscriptions are the “business model of the future.”
Zuora sees itself as an early pioneer in a growing category. The company believes that more businesses will shift their business models to subscriptions, across sectors like media and entertainment, transportation, publishing, industrial goods and retail.
It helps its 950 customers manage subscriptions, including billing and revenue recognition. Zuora touts that it has 15 of the Fortune 100 businesses as clients.
Zuora’s revenue for its fiscal 2018 year was $167.9 million. This was up from $113 million in 2017 and $92.2 million the year before. Losses remained constant in this timeframe, from $48.2 million in 2016 to $47.2 million in 2018.
“We have a history of net losses, anticipate increasing our operating expenses in the future, and may not achieve or sustain profitability,” warned the requisite risk factors section of the filing.
It also acknowledged a competitive landscape. Oracle and SAP are amongst the companies offering software in the ERP (enterprise resource planning) category. It also competes with other startups like Chargebee.
The largest shareholders are Benchmark, which owned 11.1% prior to the IPO . Founder and CEO Tien Tzuo owned 10.2%. Others with a significant stake included Wellington Management, Shasta Ventures, Tenaya Capital and Redpoint.
The San Mateo, California-based company previously raised over $240 million, dating back to 2007.
Zuora listed on the New York Stock Exchange, under the ticker “ZUO.” Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley worked as lead underwriters on the deal. Fenwick & West and Wilson Sonsini served as counsel.
After a slow start to the year for tech IPOs, there has been a flurry of activity in recent weeks. Dropbox and Spotify were amongst the recent public debuts. We also have DocuSign, Pivotal and Smartsheet on the horizon.
Source: TechCrunch
Tesla says it willingly withdrew from the party agreement with the National Transportation Safety Board, adding that the NTSB is more concerned with “press headlines than actually promoting safety,” a Tesla spokesperson told TechCrunch via email.
“Last week, in a conversation with the NTSB, we were told that if we made additional statements before their 12-24 month investigative process is complete, we would no longer be a party to the investigation agreement,” a Tesla spokesperson said in a statement to TechCrunch. “On Tuesday, we chose to withdraw from the agreement and issued a statement to correct misleading claims that had been made about Autopilot — claims which made it seem as though Autopilot creates safety problems when the opposite is true.”
This comes after the NTSB said it revoked Tesla’s party status in the investigation regarding the fatal crash involving one of Tesla’s Model X cars. The NTSB said it did so because Tesla, without permission from the NTSB, relayed information to the public regarding the investigation.
Tesla went on to note the prevalence of automotive fatalities in the United States in comparison to fatalities involving cars with Autopilot. Tesla says for every 320 million miles cars equipped with Autopilot drive, there is one fatality, including known pedestrian fatalities. That’s compared to one fatality for every 86 million miles driven for all vehicles, Tesla said.
“If you are driving a Tesla equipped with Autopilot hardware, you are 3.7 times less likely to be involved in a fatal accident and this continues to improve,” the spokesperson said.
Tesla also alleges its “clear in our conversations” with the NTSB that it cares less about safety and more about press headlines.
“Among other things, they repeatedly released partial bits of incomplete information to the media in violation of their own rules, at the same time that they were trying to prevent us from telling all the facts,” the spokesperson said. “We don’t believe this is right and we will be making an official complaint to Congress. We will also be issuing a Freedom Of Information Act request to understand the reasoning behind their focus on the safest cars in America while they ignore the cars that are the least safe. Perhaps there is a sound rationale for this, but we cannot imagine what that could possibly be.”
Tesla also took time to note how the NTSB is an advisory body, rather than a regulatory one, and how Tesla has a “strong and positive relationship” with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
“When tested by NHTSA, Model S and Model X each received five stars not only overall but in every sub-category,” the Tesla spokesperson said. “This was the only time an SUV had ever scored that well. Moreover, of all the cars that NHTSA has ever tested, Model S and Model X scored as the two cars with the lowest probability of injury. There is no company that cares more about safety and the evidence speaks for itself.”
When reached for comment pertaining to Tesla’s claims, the NTSB says it stands by the press release it issued earlier and has nothing to add. Meanwhile, the NHTSA says its investigation is ongoing.
“The agency is in contact with local investigators, consistent with NHTSA’s vigilant oversight and authority over the safety of all motor vehicles and equipment,” an NHTSA spokesperson said in a statement to TechCrunch. “NHTSA is dispatching its Special Crash Investigation Team and will take action as appropriate.”
Source: TechCrunch
Want to see the second season of shows about the creepy android-populated theme park? Hulu wants you to tune in with its streaming video service.
Source: CNET
Being an online video star might seem cool or even glamorous these days, but Burnie Burns, co-founder and chief creative officer at Rooster Teeth, can remember when that wasn’t the case.
Rooster Teeth, which is behind the popular web series Red vs. Blue, is turning 15 years old this month. (The studio was acquired by Fullscreen a few years ago.) And Burns has been looking back at its history as part of the upcoming documentary Why We’re Here: 15 Years of Rooster Teeth.
He acknowledged that nowadays, anyone in the business is competing with “an enormous noise,” but at the same time, Burns said, “There’s the misconception that because no one was doing this when we got started, that made it easier. It’s really difficult to go into a place where no one else is and no one else cares what’s going on there.”
He recalled that in the studio’s early days, he would tell people about his work and realize, “Home video was a dirty word, and online video was beneath it.”
The documentary was directed by Mat Hames, and it allows Burns and his co-founder Matt Hullum to revisit many of their old haunts, including the bedroom where Burns uploaded the first episode of Red vs. Blue, “Why Are We Here?”
For Rooster Teeth fans, Burns promised footage that has never been seen before, as well as a recounting of the history that’s as honest as they could make it without violating nondisclosure agreements.
“I think we almost have an obligation to show what things were like back then,” he said.
And even if you haven’t been following the company through the years, Burns said the film provides an overview of how online video has evolved. After all, when Red vs. Blue launched, YouTube didn’t exist, and Burns said the documentary process has helped him understand “how short the memory of the Internet is.”
Rooster Teeth published a teaser for Why We’re Here last week, and today it’s launching the official trailer. The documentary will be released exclusively on the studio’s subscription video service FIRST on April 20.
Source: TechCrunch
For all the good of Android’s open-source approach, one of the clear and consistent downsides is that the onus to issue software updates falls on the manufacturer. That can mean frustration for those waiting for the latest and greatest feature updates — and in some cases, it can put your phone at risk with delayed or missed security updates.
A pair of researchers at Security Research Labs recently shared a study with Wired highlighting some of these risks. The team’s findings are the result of testing 1,200 Android handsets from all the major manufacturers over the course of two years, examining whether manufacturers had offered the security patches as advertised.
According to SRL, missed security patches were discovered on a wide range of different handsets across manufacturers. Sony and Samsung were both flagged as having missed some security patches — in some cases in spite of reporting that they were up to date. “It’s almost impossible for the user to know which patches are actually installed,” one of the researchers told the site.
Xiaomi, Nokia, HTC, Motorola and LG all made the list, as well, while TCL and ZTE fared the worst in the study, with, on average, not having installed more than four of the patches they claimed to have installed on a given device.
In a statement provided to TechCrunch, Google pointed to the importance of various different means used to secure the Android ecosystem. The company believes that the SRL findings might not tell the full story when it comes to keeping devices secure.
“We would like to thank Karsten Nohl and Jakob Kell for their continued efforts to reinforce the security of the Android ecosystem,” the company writes. “We’re working with them to improve their detection mechanisms to account for situations where a device uses an alternate security update instead of the Google suggested security update. Security updates are one of many layers used to protect Android devices and users. Built-in platform protections, such as application sandboxing, and security services, such as Google Play Protect, are just as important. These layers of security—combined with the tremendous diversity of the Android ecosystem—contribute to the researchers’ conclusions that remote exploitation of Android devices remains challenging.”
The company also pointed us to this year in review post, which sheds a bit more light on the matter.
Source: TechCrunch
The streaming music company, facing copyright infringement accusations, gets a better way to track what songs it’s playing so it doesn’t shortchange music publishers.
Source: CNET
