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Alibaba’s recent deals are paving the way for its Chinese marketplace to go global

Jun05
by on June 5, 2014 at 6:17 am
Posted In: Analysis and Opinion, Around the Web, Asia, e-commerce

Alibaba
All eyes in the tech industry are on Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba after it finally kickstarted its long-awaited IPO by submitting its prospectus.  We noted earlier that as many talked up the event, which may very well be the world’s biggest IPO potentially raising up to $20 billion, some in the US are puzzled that Alibaba hasn’t explicitly announced plans to expand its consumer-to-consumer eBay-like empire into the US — think in particular of its marketplace Taobao. On the other hand, Alibaba has always had international business-to-business operations. It also has AliExpress, which pivoted last year to allow individual consumers to purchase goods…

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a couple of laughzillas on a blue diamond background

Pepper is an emotionally-aware robot available in Japan next year for under $2,000

Jun05
by on June 5, 2014 at 5:32 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Gadgets, Japan, Shareables

Screen_Shot_2014-06-05_at_1.06.26_PM__2_
SoftBank is known for having many business interests — from an early investment in Alibaba, to the Sprint deal in the US — but now the company is moving into robotics with an “emotionally-aware” humanoid called Pepper. Pepper was unveiled at a press event in Tokyo, and it is designed to perform a range of tasks, from customer service to helping out with family jobs, all while gauging the emotions of people around it. The robot uses an ‘emotional engine’ developed by SoftBank, which is powered by a cloud-based artificial intelligence system. Each robot provides feedback from its experiences into the…

This story continues at The Next Web

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a couple of laughzillas on a blue diamond background

Pepper is an emotionally-aware robot available in Japan next year for under $2,000

Jun05
by on June 5, 2014 at 5:32 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Gadgets, Japan, Shareables

Screen_Shot_2014-06-05_at_1.06.26_PM__2_
SoftBank is known for having many business interests — from an early investment in Alibaba, to the Sprint deal in the US — but now the company is moving into robotics with an “emotionally-aware” humanoid called Pepper. Pepper was unveiled at a press event in Tokyo, and it is designed to perform a range of tasks, from customer service to helping out with family jobs, all while gauging the emotions of people around it. The robot uses an ‘emotional engine’ developed by SoftBank, which is powered by a cloud-based artificial intelligence system. Each robot provides feedback from its experiences into the…

This story continues at The Next Web

└ Tags: ,
a couple of laughzillas on a blue diamond background

Google’s search results now warn you when a webpage is not optimized for mobile

Jun05
by on June 5, 2014 at 4:16 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Google, Product Updates

Google has released a fix for faulty redirects on its mobile search — which happens when a website displayed in the search results isn’t properly set up to handle requests from smartphones, and leads you to the mobile site homepage instead. Starting today, first with English search results in the US, Google will have an indication below the result when it detects that smartphone users will be redirected to a homepage instead of the Web page displayed. You can still click ‘Try anyway’ if you want to reach the homepage. If any of a site’s pages are redirecting smartphone users to…

This story continues at The Next Web

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