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PayPal has entered the cryptocurrency market, announcing that its customers will be able to buy and sell Bitcoin and other virtual currencies using their PayPal accounts. Those virtual coins could then be used to buy things from the 26 million sellers which accept PayPal, it said. PayPal plans to roll out buying options in the US over the next few weeks, with the full rollout due early next year. Bitcoin prices rose alongside the news, breaking the $12,000 (£9,170) mark. The other cryptocurrencies to be added first will be Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash (a spin-off from Bitcoin). All could be stored "directly within the PayPal digital wallet", the company said. 'Penny stocks' Cryptocurrencies have remained a niche payment method, partly down to the rapid change in prices they can experience compared with traditional state-backed currencies. That has made them popular among some types of investors. PayPal said it was aiming "to increase consumer understandin...

Ryne Hager It might not matter how high the DPI on a screen gets cranked by each new model if you have trouble seeing it. Thankfully we have Google's TalkBack, Android's accessibility service for the blind and disabled. It reads what's on your screen, but it also provides feedback for actions allowing users to fully interact with their device. Now the latest update has left beta after a few months of testing, bringing with it even more features, like verbosity (an adjustment for how much or little content it reads, based on your preferences), character counts for password fields, and a new Select to Speak service that allows you to tap content to hear it spoken, and more. The recent changes should go some ways towards easing accessible interaction with an Android device. Phones are pretty much a requirement these days to a productive life, and each new accessibility feature makes them easier to use, enabling everyone to have the same advantages in communication. Google f...

Electric vehicles are all of the rage right now, and that situation will not change anytime soon. Significant advancements have been made in this industry over the past few years. Late last week, the world’s first electric jet plane took off and landed vertically without any issues. Moreover, the machine completed several brief test flights in the process. A very intriguing development, to say the least. ELECTRIC JETS CAN INDEED FLY It is always a bit worrisome when engineers will test a new concept that has never succeeded before. In the case of the electric jet plane, there are a lot of things that could go wrong. It turns out a lot of these concerns were unfounded, though, as the plane successfully took off and landed vertically after completing several test flights. A major breakthrough in the world of electric vehicles, that much is certain. Essentially, the Lilium jet is a two-seater hybrid aircraft which utilizes the mechanisms of both a conventional airplane and a helicopter...

The  Mi Mix  smartphone felt like  an experimental phone  when it launched, because its party trick was something very few manufacturers have done. That is, it had an almost bezel-less front display that covered 91% of the whole front face of the phone. But  Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun  is feeling bullish enough about the concept phone to announce that a 2nd generation Mi Mix is being developed. Lei Jun announced via his Weibo page that  Xiaomi  will be collaborating with French designer Philippe Starck for the development of the  Mi Mix II , which will probably try to follow the bold design aesthetics seen in the original model. See the beauty of the Mi Mix below, if you don’t remember it. We doubt that you’d forget such a stunning piece of technology. To remind you, the Mi Mix sported an unorthodox 6.4-inch bezel-less display with FullHD (1080p) resolution and an unusual 9:17 aspect ratio. That was powered by a robust Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 p...

Global professional services firm Accenture PLC and Thales e-security recently announced the launch of a patent-pending security system for enterprise use that, “creates a simple path to large-scale commercial use of blockchain technology,” according to Accenture. Thales’ technology is found in enterprise finance, Aerospace, Transport, Defence and Security markets. With 62,000 employees in 56 countries, 25,000 of which are engineers and researchers, Thales deploys equipment and systems in some of the most complex security environments worldwide. As part of the Thales Group,  Thales e-Security  is the data security solutions and services branch that works with companies and governments to secure data. “The possibilities for blockchain are endless,” said Jon Geater, the CTO of Thales e-Security. “In the financial sector everything from transactions to contracts and deeds could use a blockchain to legitimize and simplify the settlement process, and industries such a...

Following a  piece published about the design  of the Pixel and Pixel XL yesterday, Google is now directly soliciting feedback about the phone’s look.  In a post  on the Pixel User Community, Product Lead Krishna Kumar asks what Google got right, wrong, and how it could improve future devices… A big  criticism  of Google’s first wholly-made phone has been how similar it looks to the iPhone, although one aspect where the Pixel is notably different is its wedge-shape. Yesterday’s  CNET  piece  does go into particular depth about how avoiding an “unsightly” camera bump was a special area of focus. The wedge-shape ultimately allowed for a larger battery while also allowing the phone to rest flat on a surface. Additionally, we learned that the glass panel on the rear provides “more surface area to receive and send signals,” though Google did not mention why antenna lines are then still required. Noting t...

Google’s Home   digital assistant has been      Google’s Home  digital assistant has been compared to  Amazon’s Alexa  a lot over the last few months, and now it’s getting the ability to  order things through voice commands , just like Alexa can. Of course, Home is still a Google product, so instead of buying things through Amazon Prime, orders go through Google Express instead. And while Google Express typically has a  membership fee or per-delivery charge , Google is waiving those costs for purchases made with Home through April 30th. The update should be rolling out today — Home users simply need to  add a payment method  in the Google Home app, and then they can place orders simply by asking Google Assistant. Since the service is run through Google Express, products are limited to  stores that are partnered  with Google already, and of course, you’ll need to live in an area where Google’s  same-day delivery serv...

Google Assistant still lacks any sort of chain of command when using it across multiple devices. And now your watch has it. A big part of the  Android Wear 2.0  update is the inclusion of  Google Assistant . If you've never used it, Google Assistant is like a friendlier version of  Google Now  that can remember things and help you by doing more "stuff" than the original could. It's pretty cool, and even though it's not been around for long we've already seen it get better and smarter. And now, it's on your watch. Assistant is on different devices with different hardware and different abilities. That means you can tell your watch to do things like add milk to your shopping list, tell you the weather or how traffic looks for your evening commute, or even play a movie on your  Chromecast . It can do all those things and will. But Google Assistant acts differently depending on what device it's running on, and there are some things your watch can'...

India has successfully launched 104 satellites from a single rocket, setting a world record. Most of the orbiting hardware was made up of nano-satellites; the smallest weighing just over a kilogram India has successfully launched 104 satellites from a single rocket, Scientists  at India's southern spaceport of Sriharikota applauded as the head of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced that all the satellites had been deployed into orbit on Wednesday. "My hearty congratulations to the ISRO team for this success," the agency's director Kiran Kumar said to those tracking the progress of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his congratulations on the launch and ejection of satellites, which was covered live on national television channels. The rocket was launched at 9:28 a.m. (0358 UTC), releasing all 104 satellites into orbit about 30 minutes later. Its main cargo was a 714 kilogram Indian satellite to be us...

By Mike Senese The inaugural Maker Faire Kuwait happened this past weekend. It was a great first event, with 67 local makers showing their projects, from high-tech inventions to handmade regional crafts, to an engaged flow of attendees. Through all three days, one aspect stood out: the large number of proud young women engineers. Kuwait is a tiny, triangle-shaped country, about the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island, sitting between Iraq and Saudi Arabia along the northwest corner of the Persian Gulf. Historically, it was a boat-building and trade leader for the Arabian peninsula; the discovery of large oil reserves in the 1930s helped it develop a strong focus on science and engineering and turned Kuwait into one of the richest countries in the world. I wasn’t too familiar with these aspects as I arrived to Kuwait the night before its first Maker Faire began. Approaching at night over the Persian Gulf by plane, the downtown stood out as tall and modern, each building b...

New tech will make them lighter and boost their capacity, says BMW by  Mark Tisshaw BMW  expects a breakthrough in battery technology in 2026, by which time it plans to have solid-state batteries ready for production in its models. The batteries will use lithium ion technology but swap liquid electrolytes for solid ones, with initial targets being for a 15-20% increase in capacity. Other benefits include less weight and a reduction in the amount of safety protection needed due to the reduced fire risk. This also allows for the packaging and housing of the batteries to be revisited. The batteries are in development but 10 years away from production, with long-term durability testing cited as a key reason for the delay. The next development in the refinement of BMW’s existing battery technology will arrive in 2018 in time for the launch of the  Mini Cooper E  and the all-electric version of the next-generation  BMW X3 . BMW will continue to develop its i...

Amy Gesenhues on February 10, 2017 at 1:46 pm Another Supercell video game made its way to the top of YouTube’s ad leaderboard last month with Clash Royale’s “The Last Second” spot earning 11.1 million views. While Supercell’s Clash Royale ad ranked No. 1, Apple was the winning brand overall — earning a combined 14.1 million views for two different iPhone 7 ads at No. 2 and No. 3. The 11.1 million views earned by the Clash Royale spot was significantly lower than the results Supercell saw in December of last year. The ad garnered just over a third of views generated by Supercell’s “Clash of Clans 360-Degree Experience — Virtual Reality Raid” spot that ranked No. 1 in December with 30.2 million views. In fact, the mobile video gaming company owned half of the  December 2016 ad leaderboard  with four of its ads for Clash of Clans ranking in the No. 1, No. 2, No. 5 and No. 6 spots, and an ad for its Boom Beach game taking the No. 9 spot. Of the more than 100 million com...

Steve Kovach   Chris Urmson, Google's former head of self-driving cars.Reuters/Stephen Lam GOOG Alphabet-C  819.24 5.57 (+0.70 %) Disclaimer Get real-time GOOG charts here » Google's parent company, Alphabet, lost some of its leading self-driving-car experts because they were offered large payouts based on the valuation of the company's self-driving-car division,  according to a new Bloomberg report . The large payouts gave the employees little incentive to stay at the company, and some left to begin their own self-driving-car startups and initiatives. Essentially, the staff members were paid so much that they quit, the Bloomberg report says. To be clear, it's likely the large payouts weren't the only factor that caused the employees to quit, but it appears to be a significant reason. A spokesperson for Waymo, the self-driving-car company that launched under Alphabet, declined to comment on the report. It's unclear how much the payouts were or who rec...

Kif Leswing Getty Images/Stephen Lam AAPL Apple Rg  133.25 1.16 (+0.90 %) Disclaimer Get real-time AAPL charts here » The world's most valuable company is breaking new records. Apple's shares closed on Monday at $133.29, up $1.17 for the day, and above its record close of $133, set in February 2015.   However, Apple hasn't yet broken its intraday high, $134.54, set in April 2015. Still, investors are clearly finding their appetite for the company's stock. Apple is valued at about $699 billion, the largest market cap for a publicly traded American company.  The stock has risen more than 9% since Apple reported  a solid beat on quarterly earnings , breaking three straight quarters in which the company reported an annual decline in sales.  During much of 2016, there were serious concerns about whether Apple's iPhone, which contributes about two thirds of Apple's revenue, had saturated its market. And Apple's sales in China are still ...

Electronic voting is by no means new. In one way or another, non-paper-ballot voting has been going on for decades. It should surprise no one that there have been instances of severe security breaches in more than one jurisdiction. The HBO documentary “Hacking Democracy” covers this in detail. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts know there is a good solution to the problem of compromised electronic voting. The ledger that underpins Bitcoin, the blockchain, is perhaps the most secure design ever seen. Pete Martin, founder and CEO of  Votem , a veteran of SAP consulting, went to a business conference a few years ago in which the speaker challenged his audience to come up with an idea that would positively impact 1 billion people. “I sold my consulting business and was seriously thinking about getting into state politics,” he stated in interview to CCN. “A lot of people around me said, you know, at the end of the day, Pete, you’re an entrepreneur, you’re not a politician. So, you know, if th...

Terrell Jermaine Starr Last night, the U.S. Air Force test-launched an unarmed Minuteman III ICBM from the Vandenberg Air Force Base. It’s not an event that happens every day, but it’s done to verify the reliability and accuracy of the weapons system. While it could be seen as a message to a belligerent North Korea, it’s still a test of a system wildly outdated compared to what Russia is arming up with. The missile, equipped with a reentry vehicle, flew 4,200 miles to a test range near the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It was pulled at random from a silo at Minot Air Force Base, in North Dakota, then transported and reassembled at Vandenberg. There are no more details on how the test went. See the video below: Though, given how North Korea  recently announced  that it is developing an ICBM that can reach the U.S. mainland, the Minuteman III launch may have just been a message to Pyongyang that Washington can strike it with little notice. A...

The two customized Dodge Challengers will be separated by color only: a combination of either Pitch Black/Contusion Blue or Pitch Black/Billet Silver. PHOTO GALLERY: 2017 Mopar Dodge Challenger       PHOTO GALLERY >> Fiat Chrysler’s Mopar parts and service brand, in celebration of its 80th anniversary this year, will offer a pair of 80-car limited edition, hand-painted, customized Dodge Challengers. Each of the customized Challengers will be equipped with 6.4-liter, V-8 engines and six-speed manual transmissions and outfitted with “shaker” hoods and air scoops. The cars also will feature the headlight-mounted cold air intake used in the supercharged Hellcat Challengers, providing a performance boost to 485 hp and 475 pounds-feet of torque. The two vehicles will be separated by color only: a combination of either Pitch Black/Contusion Blue or Pitch Black/Billet Silver. Each vehicle will carry serialized badges to identify its place within ...