While the previous article focused on Apple products, we also want to highlight some more Black Friday deals from the retailer.
These deals (and others) can be seen here.
Paypal (PYPL) has added the ability for iPhone and iPad users to send and receive money by using Siri.
As noted on PayPal's official blog, the new PayPal app with Siri integration lets iPhone and iPad owners send and request money using nothing but their voice.
The company offered a number of example command strings that invoke the new feature, including, "Hey Siri, send Bill $50 using PayPal," "Use PayPal to send $125 to Jenny for groceries," and "Request $20 from Dad with PayPal." Whether the feature is compatible with Siri's new neural network-powered capabilities, like contextual replies and enhanced comprehension of long-tail queries, is unclear.
With PayPal account access just a voice prompt away, users will be able to easily split restaurant tabs, pay back friends, share bills and more, the company says.
At launch, Siri voice integration is rolling out in multiple languages serving 30 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium (French and Dutch), Brazil, Canada (English and French), China, Denmark, Finland (Finnish), France, Germany, Hong Kong (Cantonese), India, Israel (Hebrew), Italy, Japan, Malaysia (Malay), Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia (Arabic), Singapore (English), Spain, Sweden, Switzerland (French, German, and Italian), Thailand, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates (Arabic) and the United States.
PayPal's Siri integration comes nearly two months after Apple officially opened Siri APIs to third-party developers. Interestingly, PayPal subsidiary Venmo was first to receive Siri at launch.
PayPal can be downloaded for free from the iOS App Store.
Via: AppleInsider.com
“Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook broadcast an all-hands memo to U.S. Apple employees Wednesday evening calling for unity amid the uncertainty inspired by Donald Trump’s upset presidential win,” John Paczkowski reports for Buzzfeed News.
Cook “tells Apple employees that ‘the only way to move forward is to move forward together,'” Paczkowski reports. “And he reasserts Apple’s commitment to social progress and equality.”
The Apple CEO also quotes Martin Luther King, Jr.: “If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
Tim Cook’s full memo, verbatim:
Team,
President-elect of the United States Donald Trump and First Lady of the United States Designate Melania Trump
I’ve heard from many of you today about the presidential election. In a political contest where the candidates were so different and each received a similar number of popular votes, it’s inevitable that the aftermath leaves many of you with strong feelings.
We have a very diverse team of employees, including supporters of each of the candidates. Regardless of which candidate each of us supported as individuals, the only way to move forward is to move forward together. I recall something Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said 50 years ago: “If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” This advice is timeless, and a reminder that we only do great work and improve the world by moving forward.
While there is discussion today about uncertainties ahead, you can be confident that Apple’s North Star hasn’t changed. Our products connect people everywhere, and they provide the tools for our customers to do great things to improve their lives and the world at large. Our company is open to all, and we celebrate the diversity of our team here in the United States and around the world — regardless of what they look like, where they come from, how they worship or who they love.
I’ve always looked at Apple as one big family and I encourage you to reach out to your co-workers if they are feeling anxious.
Let’s move forward — together!
Best,
Tim
(Variety.com): With Donald Trump headed to the Oval Office in 2017, the FCC’s network neutrality regulations could be in danger of getting the ax — a move that might embolden internet service providers to hike prices for consumers and content companies.
The FCC’s Open Internet Order, adopted in February 2015, bans internet providers from blocking or slowing down traffic as well as from engaging in “paid prioritization” schemes that give preference to content providers who pay for the privilege. The rules also reclassified broadband internet service as a common-carrier service under Title II of the Communications Act, giving the FCC much more latitude to regulate the industry.
Trump heretofore has not said much about the issue — or about his technology policy in general — while Hillary Clinton has been a strong supporter of network neutrality. But in a November 2014 tweet, he called President Obama’s push for net neutrality “an attack on the internet” and called it a “top-down power grab.”
Trump may already have a repeal of net neutrality on his agenda, according to BTIG Research analyst Rich Greenfield. Moving broadband back under Title I would be a clear win for cable and telco providers, Greenfield wrote in a research note. But it would be a negative for consumers as well as media and technology companies like Netflix, Google and Facebook and over-the-top video providers like Dish’s Sling TV that are concerned about ISPs’ control over last-mile broadband access.
“On the consumer front, if broadband is reclassified as a Title I service, ISPs would have substantially less concern over price regulation,” Greenfield wrote. “In turn, we suspect ISP consumer pricing power would rise faster than investors have assumed under a Democratic administration.” Moreover, ISPs could jack up the rates they charge content providers to interconnect to their networks — an issue that Netflix has publicly complained about.
Trump’s transition team has tapped Jeffrey Eisenach, a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute and longtime fixture in policy circles, to head up telecom policy in the new administration, Politico reported last month. Eisenach has been an outspoken critic of Wheeler, and for years has urged the FCC to take a laissez-faire regulatory approach.
Eisenach, in an Oct. 25 appearance on C-SPAN’s “The Communicators” policy series (as pointed out by Greenfield), said that Trump “has said clearly that he is opposed to net neutrality regulations.”
“What I don’t think a President Trump would do — and what I hope he would not do — is intervene to instruct an independent regulatory agency how to issue a particular regulation,” Eisenach said. “I think in general, taking his broader views on regulation into account, you would expect him to appoint to the FCC someone who would be inclined to take a less regulatory position.”
John Bergmayer, senior counsel at Public Knowledge, a public-interest group that supports network neutrality, cautioned that any action to rescind the rules would need to involve a public hearing. “The FCC has rules on the books, and it would need to conduct a proceeding, and any decision it made would have to be made based on the record,” he said. “Congress could pass legislation of various kinds as well.”
Opponents of net neutrality, meanwhile, have been encouraged by Trump’s victory. The new administration presents “a new opportunity to end the divisive and distracting fight over net neutrality,” said Berin Szóka, president of nonpartisan think tank TechFreedom.
Under President Trump, Szóka expects either Congress or the FCC to reverse the decision to reclassify broadband under Title II as well as specify that the agency does not have authority to broadly regulate the internet. “Even more important is undoing the Wheeler FCC’s staggering assertion that the FCC may freely change its mind to regulate up or down without really justifying forbearance,” he said in a statement.
In July, big ISPs represented by the National Cable & Telecommunications Assn., CTIA, USTelecom and the American Cable Assn. petitioned a federal appeals court to reconsider a decision upholding the Open Internet Order. That request is pending.
The NCTA, for its part, has said it is not challenging the principles of net neutrality. Rather, it objects to the reclassification of broadband as a Title II telecommunications service, which NCTA labeled an outdated regulatory framework. “Quite simply, as regulators for decades have acknowledged and consistently determined, dynamic internet networks do not resemble or deserve to be treated like archaic telephone systems,” the trade group said in July.
Source: Variety.com
