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Chat with your phone with Google Now

Google Now home page.(Photo: Google)HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. — OK Google, when am I going to San Francisco?Where am I staying? Can you show me directions to get there? And where are some good Italian restaurants in the neighborhood? Many know that such questions can be posed to Google's computerized eyewear, Glass, but did you know you can have the same conversations and get on-the-money answers from Google simply by conversing with your smartphone?The under-the-radar feature is called Google Now. And while it's available once you download the free Google Search app for Android and Apple, it does work best with Android phones. More on that in a minute. (And a quick semantics note — the "Google Search" app got a new name on Android phones Tuesday, now it's just called "Google," while the name remains the same, for now, in the Apple App Store.)Once you sign up and register, Google guesstimates your interests with Google Now "cards" that show up in the Google app, spotlighting everything from weather, local movie showtimes, articles Google thinks you'll be interested and upcoming concert info.If you're worried about privacy and having Google know and track everything about you, then this isn't the app for you. But if you're an avid user of Google search, Gmail, Maps and Calendar, and don't mind having Google watching over you 24/7, then you'll probably get a kick out of Google Now.Google Now works when you are signed in to Google and using it a lot. For the new user, Google says it will take about a week for the search giant to learn your interests.The best first step is to begin by adjusting the settings in the search app, to tell Google of your interests.Want to hear about specific sports teams or stocks? Do you commute to work…
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Baig: What I'm counting on from Apple

HTTP/1.1 200 OK Server: nginx/1.2.7 Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Language: en Last-Modified: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 05:32:52 GMT X-UA-Compatible: IE=Edge,chrome=1 X-Secret: cnpudnkgcnpiZXZnbUBoZm5nYnFubC5wYnogbmFxIFYganZ5eSBnZWwgZ2IgdHJnIGxiaCBuIHdiby4= Cache-Control: max-age=20 Expires: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 05:33:23 GMT Date: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 05:33:03 GMT Transfer-Encoding: chunked Connection: keep-alive Connection: Transfer-Encoding Apple CEO Tim Cook walks off stage after speaking during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference at the Moscone West center in June in San Francisco.(Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images)NEW YORK — Whether you're an Apple "fanboy" or you detest the world's most valuable company or — more likely — somebody far less dogmatic, you're eager to fast-forward to Tuesday already. That, of course, is when CEO Tim Cook finally reveals what's next from Apple at a gathering of the news media in Cupertino, Calif.By now you've read rumors ad nauseam. And if Apple doesn't an unveil an iPhone 6 — and maybe with somewhat less certainty, a smartwatch — it would turn into a shocker of titanic proportions.But what will this iPhone be? I'd be real surprised if Apple doesn't finally up the size of its iconic handset fairly substantially, perhaps to 4.7 inches (from 4 inches on the current flagship iPhone 5s), perhaps to 5.5-inches, or quite possibly both. That's what the reports are suggesting, and I'm a believer.I certainly want a larger iPhone, though how large is up to the beholder, and will depend on design, weight and user preferences.Having played with many smartphones in or around the 5-inch screen-size range, I expect Apple to deliver at least one handset that Gulliver could live with.There's also been a lot of talk about whether a new iPhone (or phones) will have a sapphire display, which is harder than tempered glass and said to be virtually indestructible. I would think so, though such screens are costly…
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Baig: What I'm counting on from Apple

HTTP/1.1 200 OK Server: nginx/1.2.7 Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Language: en Last-Modified: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 05:32:52 GMT X-UA-Compatible: IE=Edge,chrome=1 X-Secret: cnpudnkgcnpiZXZnbUBoZm5nYnFubC5wYnogbmFxIFYganZ5eSBnZWwgZ2IgdHJnIGxiaCBuIHdiby4= Cache-Control: max-age=20 Expires: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 05:33:23 GMT Date: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 05:33:03 GMT Transfer-Encoding: chunked Connection: keep-alive Connection: Transfer-Encoding Apple CEO Tim Cook walks off stage after speaking during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference at the Moscone West center in June in San Francisco.(Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images)NEW YORK — Whether you're an Apple "fanboy" or you detest the world's most valuable company or — more likely — somebody far less dogmatic, you're eager to fast-forward to Tuesday already. That, of course, is when CEO Tim Cook finally reveals what's next from Apple at a gathering of the news media in Cupertino, Calif.By now you've read rumors ad nauseam. And if Apple doesn't an unveil an iPhone 6 — and maybe with somewhat less certainty, a smartwatch — it would turn into a shocker of titanic proportions.But what will this iPhone be? I'd be real surprised if Apple doesn't finally up the size of its iconic handset fairly substantially, perhaps to 4.7 inches (from 4 inches on the current flagship iPhone 5s), perhaps to 5.5-inches, or quite possibly both. That's what the reports are suggesting, and I'm a believer.I certainly want a larger iPhone, though how large is up to the beholder, and will depend on design, weight and user preferences.Having played with many smartphones in or around the 5-inch screen-size range, I expect Apple to deliver at least one handset that Gulliver could live with.There's also been a lot of talk about whether a new iPhone (or phones) will have a sapphire display, which is harder than tempered glass and said to be virtually indestructible. I would think so, though such screens are costly…
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Facebook talked ice buckets twice as much as Ferguson

HTTP/1.1 200 OK Server: nginx/1.2.7 Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Language: en Last-Modified: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 17:31:10 GMT X-UA-Compatible: IE=Edge,chrome=1 X-Secret: cnpudnkgcnpiZXZnbUBoZm5nYnFubC5wYnogbmFxIFYganZ5eSBnZWwgZ2IgdHJnIGxiaCBuIHdiby4= Cache-Control: max-age=20 Expires: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 17:33:11 GMT Date: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 17:32:51 GMT Transfer-Encoding: chunked Connection: keep-alive Connection: Transfer-Encoding People react after Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson releases the name of the officer accused of fatally shooting Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, Friday, Aug. 15, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo.(Photo: AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)SAN FRANCISCO — The Ferguson, Mo., protests dominated Twitter for days last month. Not so on Facebook.Facebook users engaged with the "ice bucket challenge" viral fund-raising phenomenon more than twice as much as they did the Ferguson protests in mid-August, data obtained by USA TODAY show.A random sample of 100,000 U.S. Facebook users' public timelines showed 3,250 were talking about Ferguson in their posts and activities from Aug. 9 to Aug. 20, according to an analysis by Portage Co., a Minneapolis, Minn.-based social analytics and educational company. That amounted to about 3.3% of Facebook users sampled.In contrast, 7,703 were talking about the ALS ice bucket challenge, or 7.7% of the sample, for the same period.Users engaged 2.4 times more on "ice bucket challenge" than they did on "Ferguson," says Portage CEO Alex Houg, who performed the analysis at the request of USA TODAY.An engaged user was someone who commented on the topic, shared a link about it or liked a post with the key word.The estimate seems to confirm what had been largely anecdotal – that a Facebook (Ticker: FB) user was much less likely to read about the Ferguson protests than someone on Twitter (Ticker: TWTR[1]).Facebook releases data on how much users discuss certain events, say the World Cup, the Royal Wedding or the Olympics. But Facebook declined to comment on Ferguson.Twitter,…
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Cutting the Cord: Weighing whether it is words or reality

HTTP/1.1 200 OK Server: nginx/1.2.7 Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Language: en Last-Modified: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 05:20:50 GMT X-UA-Compatible: IE=Edge,chrome=1 X-Secret: cnpudnkgcnpiZXZnbUBoZm5nYnFubC5wYnogbmFxIFYganZ5eSBnZWwgZ2IgdHJnIGxiaCBuIHdiby4= Cache-Control: max-age=20 Expires: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 05:25:38 GMT Date: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 05:25:18 GMT Transfer-Encoding: chunked Connection: keep-alive Connection: Transfer-Encoding A cable box is seen on top of a television in Philadelphia in 2007.(Photo: Matt Rourke, AP)Want more proof that cord cutting is officially a thing? It's caught the attention of the folks who publish the Oxford English Dictionary.The term "cord cutter" isn't yet part of the Oxford English Dictionary, which is often considered the arbiter of the language. But it has been added to OxfordDictionaries.com[1], the first step toward OED inclusion.Along with "cord cutter," the online dictionary also added [2]"binge-watch" and "hate-watch," which means watching a program you don't like, just so you can rant about it. A few other words added: "amazeballs" and "side-boob."Updated quarterly, OxfordDictionaries.com is a more contemporary counterpart to the Oxford English Dictionary, which is due for its own quarterly update in September. Words migrate to the OED, but not quite that quickly, says Katherine Martin, who is the head of the U.S. dictionaries at Oxford University Press."There's a lot of evidence for 'cord cutter' right now so if it stays in (the vernacular) much longer it will be a very good candidate," she says.The last print version of the OED came out in 1989, so OED.com is the up-to-date document. There are some sample entries[3] you can look at, but a subscription runs $29.95 monthly or $295 annually.When the OED researchers looked into the background of "cord cutter," they found it has also been used to describe those who were dropping landline phone service for cellphones, Martin says."It's a fun word because you are comparing the cable or telephone companies…
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Bank hack attack: What you should do

HTTP/1.1 200 OK Server: nginx/1.2.7 Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Language: en Last-Modified: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 17:20:54 GMT X-UA-Compatible: IE=Edge,chrome=1 X-Secret: cnpudnkgcnpiZXZnbUBoZm5nYnFubC5wYnogbmFxIFYganZ5eSBnZWwgZ2IgdHJnIGxiaCBuIHdiby4= Cache-Control: max-age=20 Expires: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 17:25:17 GMT Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 17:24:57 GMT Transfer-Encoding: chunked Connection: keep-alive Connection: Transfer-Encoding This is an example of a phishing email reported by the computer security company ProofPoint, in Sunnyvale, Calif. The email claimed to be from JPMorgan Chase & Company but was instead coming from Russia.(Photo: ProofPoint)With the FBI investigating a cyberattack that hit at least five banks, including JPMorgan Chase, many consumers are wondering what they can do to protect themselves if their accounts have been compromised.Here are some steps to take:Don't be taken PhishingBanks and other financial institutions do not send emails asking customers to input their account information, verify account data or update their records.Such emails are what are known as "phishing attacks" because the hackers are fishing for information they can use to enter a network and steal information.Consumers who get one of these emails should immediately delete it. Don't click on any of the links.Often the bank or financial institution will have information on its website about these types of fraud attempts. Open a new browser window and type in your bank's address and search on words like "fraud" or "scam" to see. When in doubt, call your bank.JPMorgan has a page[1] specifically addressing phishing. Here's the page[2] Wells Fargo has up: The warning page Wells Fargo has posted about email fraud.(Photo: Wells Fargo)Check your statements every monthMany consumers don't bother to go through their bank and credit card statements each month. But that's a crucial way to detect fraud early on. Look at each transaction to ensure that you, not a fraudster, made them it.If something looks fishy, call your bank or…
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