Google’s text-to-speech tech is getting new voices across Android apps to improve clarity and sound more natural. | The Verge The speech engine Speech Services by Google is being upgraded to improve clarity and make text-to-speech voices in Android apps sound more natural. You can hear the difference between the old voices and the updated…
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty Images) The moment everyone saw coming is finally happening. Google officially confirmed that it’s killing Stadia, the company’s troubled game-streaming service. Phil Harrison announced today in a blog post that Stadia “hasn’t gained the traction with users that we expected so we’ve made the difficult decision to begin winding…
Enlarge / The new Outlook client for Windows is creeping nearer to release, though it still doesn’t support some important features. (credit: Microsoft) Earlier this year, Microsoft released a preview of a totally redesigned Outlook for Windows client. It was a step closer to something Microsoft has been working toward for a while—a unified Outlook…
Enlarge / Amazon’s Fire TV Omni QLED Series with Alexa widgets displayed. (credit: Amazon) A year after it started pushing its own TVs, Amazon is expanding its lineup with pricier, more advanced options. The Fire TV Omni QLED Series announced yesterday at the invite-only Amazon hardware event shows the tech giant upping the ante with quantum…
Enlarge / Face and upper body of one of two South American mummies that were likely murdered, based on a recent “virtual autopsy.” (credit: A-M Begerock et al., 2022) An international team of scientists used CT scanning to conduct “virtual autopsies” of three South American mummies and found evidence of fatal trauma in two of…
Amazon’s loans will be “interest-only,” with higher than average interest rates. Amazon Yesterday Amazon announced a median $1 per hour raise in new employees’ starting pay. The average initial rate for “front-line employees in customer fulfillment and transportation” now stands at $19 an hour, with salaries ranging between $16 and $26 per hour, depending on…
Strong chemical bonds are one reason why some plastics linger as trash. Pexels Polyethylene is one of the world’s most commonly used plastics, found in bottles and packaging film, but it’s also one of the hardest to break down. By itself, it would take polyethylene hundreds of years to completely decompose. Scientists have been working…
We’re stoked for what’s shaping up to be a glorious Startup Battlefield competition at TechCrunch Disrupt on October 18–20 in San Francisco. Twenty of the most promising and creative early stage startups — chosen from the elite Startup Battlefield 200 — will go toe-to-toe for bragging rights and $100,000. This year’s contenders will have to…
There are times in the life of a startup when you don’t really want or need to raise money, but an opportunity comes along that’s so good that you create a brand new round just to be able to bring in a strategic investor. That was the situation Danish animation and motion capture company Rokoko…
All new passenger cars, pickup trucks and SUVs sold in New York state must be zero emissions by 2035, Governor Kathy Hochul announced Thursday. “By revving up our clean transportation transition and making major investments to make EVs more accessible, we’re supercharging our fight against climate change,” Hochul tweeted. NEW: All new vehicles sold in…