Hasta La Gadget!

It is no secret that Google and Apple are interesting in getting their services and technologies into cars, which has led to the creation of Apple CarPlay and Google Android Auto. However it seems that both companies can expect to compete with the likes of Amazon as well because BMW has announced the Alexa will be coming to their cars as well.

In a press release, “Amazon and BMW announced today that Amazon Alexa will be available in BMW and MINI vehicles starting in mid-2018. Ask Alexa in-car to get directions, call a business, play music or Audible content, control your smart home, check the news, and more while you’re on the go – without downloading a separate app.”

Drivers will also be able to access the thousands of skills already made available for Alexa, except within the comforts of their car. These skills will also be paired with visual cards that will be displayed on BMW and MINI cars control display, such as to-do lists and weather forecasts. Note that Alexa for BMW and MINI cars will only be for the company’s 2018 models, so if you own an older BMW vehicle we guess you’d be out of luck.

According to Ned Curic, Vice President, Alexa Automotive, “We are excited to work with BMW to bring the Alexa experience to their drivers. Voice is a big part of the future, especially in cars. Using your voice to enjoy content and interact with your car makes a great driving experience even better. We can’t wait for BMW customers to try this out.”

BMW To Bring Alexa Voice Controls To Its Cars Next Year , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

For the longest time ever, photoshopping the bodies and faces of models for advertisements, magazine spreads, and so on has been a pretty common practice. However in recent times, many are speaking out against such photoshopping, claiming that it creates an unhealthy and often unrealistic expectations of how people, especially women, should look like.

Whether or not the practice will ultimately come to an end remains to be seen, but in the meantime Getty Images, one of the largest stock photo agencies around the world, has announced that they will no longer accept photo submissions of models whose bodies have been retouched to look thinner or larger.

According to Getty, this will come into effect 1st of October where, “we have amended our Creative Stills Submission Requirements to require that you do not submit to us any creative content depicting models whose body shapes have been retouched to make them look thinner or larger. Please note that other changes made to models like a change of hair color, nose shape, retouching of skin or blemishes, etc., are outside the scope of this new law, and are therefore still acceptable.”

This announcement was made alongside a French law that would come into effect also on the 1st of October, where images used for commercial purposes have to be disclosed as to whether or not the body shape of the model has been retouched to look thinner or larger.

Getty Will No Longer Accept Photos Of Models Whose Bodies Have Been Retouched , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Cash is king in Japan, but the nation’s biggest banks are hoping to change that. A new report out of The Financial Times reveals that Japan’s central bank is planning to launch a cryptocurrency called J-Coin, one that will be based on blockchain technology. Assuming everything goes according to plan, J-Coin will co-exist alongside yen with a one-on-one value. Per … Continue reading

You can already use Alexa voice commands to steer some video playback on a Fire TV, but Amazon is about to throw the doors wide open. It just unveiled a slew of partners that will use the Video Skills Kit to add Alexa support to their video apps, and…

In Japan, there are various ways that you can pay for stuff. There is of course the good old fashion way of paying for purchases using cash, then there are credit cards (which tend to be more limited to the bigger retailers), or there are also methods like the Suica card which can be used to purchase small items like snacks, drinks, newspapers, and more.

However in a report from the Financial Times (paywall; via MIT Technology Review), Japan’s banks are working on developing their own digital currency called J Coin that is meant to be a replacement for cash. It is said to be backed by the country’s central bank and they are aiming to have it launched in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as a means to streamline the country’s financial system.

At the moment cash is still king in Japan and very much so with an estimated 70% of all financial transactions being made in cash. However there are costs associated with cash, such as transportation of all these coins and notes, plus cash is harder to regulate, which is why using a digital currency allows the government to get a better idea of how the money is moved around, which in turn does create some privacy problems as we’re sure that sometimes not everyone wants their purchases to be known, for whatever reason.

J Coin is expected to be valued the same as the Japanese yen exchanged at a one-to-one rate, meaning that people changing their cash into J Coin won’t lose anything in the process. Whether or not this system will be accepted by the Japanese public remains to be seen, but we have seen how some Japanese retailers are open to the idea of digital currency, like with Bic Camera who has started to accept Bitcoin as payment.

Japanese Banks Looking To Launch Their Own Digital Currency , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.