The need for more collaboration was the focus of many of the discussions this year at the semi-annual Government Technology Research Alliance Summit. -- For more information read the original article here.
Agencies are looking to integrate the use of personal devices into employees' daily lives. -- For more information read the original article here.
Today, it recognizes handwriting; tomorrow, it may vastly improve the military's surveillance and targeting efforts. -- For more information read the original article here.
Walmart today introduced its own mobile payments service called "Walmart Pay" built into its Walmart app on iOS and Android. The new Apple Pay competitor will roll out in select Walmart stores in the U.S. this month, followed by a nationwide launch within the first half of 2016.


Walmart Pay's QR code-based checkout process will involve opening the Walmart app, selecting Walmart Pay, activating the camera, scanning the code displayed at the register and waiting for the cashier to finish bagging your items. An electronic receipt will automatically be sent to the Walmart app.

The new payments solution will only work in Walmart stores and supports any major credit, debit, pre-paid or Walmart gift card. Walmart says that 22 million customers actively use its Walmart app each month, placing it among the top three retail apps in the App Store and Google Play.


Walmart is among a handful of retailers that have refused to support Apple Pay since its U.S. launch in October 2014. The retailer is instead one of over a dozen retailers committed to the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) consortium and its yet-to-launch rival payments service CurrentC.

Walmart's future plans to support Apple Pay or CurrentC remain undisclosed, but the company's senior vice president of services Daniel Eckert said Walmart Pay allows "for integration of other mobile wallets in the future."“The simplicity and ease of Walmart Pay comes not only from how it works, but also in how it's been built,” said Daniel Eckert, senior vice president, services, Walmart U.S. “We made a strategic decision to design Walmart Pay to work with almost any smartphone and accept almost any payment type – even allowing for the integration of other mobile wallets in the future. The result is an innovation that will make the ease of mobile payments a reality for millions of Americans.”Walmart App is free on the App Store for iPhone and Apple Watch. [Direct Link]

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
Tags: Walmart Pay, Walmart
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Facebook rolled out a pair of new features on Thursday that position the social network as a breaking news outlet. The first feature, dubbed Live Video, does just that -- enabling users to post and share live video feeds to the site. It appears to be... -- For more information read the original article here.
CUPERTINO, California — December 3, 2015 — Apple® today announced that its Swift™ programming language is now open source. As an open source language, the broad community of talented developers — from app developers to educational institutions to enterprises — can contribute to new Swift features and optimizations and help bring Swift to new computing platforms. Introduced in 2014, Swift is the fastest growing programming language in history and combines the performance and efficiency of compiled languages with the simplicity and interactivity of popular scripting languages.* Apple today also launched the Swift.org website with detailed information about Swift open source, including technical documentation, community resources and links to download the Swift source code.

“By making Swift open source the entire developer community can contribute to the programming language and help bring it to even more platforms,” said Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering. “Swift's power and ease of use will inspire a new generation to get into coding, and with today's announcement they'll be able to take their ideas anywhere, from mobile devices to the cloud.”

Swift is a powerful and intuitive programming language that gives developers the freedom and capabilities they need to create the next generation of cutting-edge software. Swift is easy to learn and use, even if you've never coded before, and it's the first systems programming language that is as expressive and enjoyable as a scripting language. Designed for safety, Swift also eliminates entire categories of common programming errors.

The Swift open source code is available via GitHub and includes support for all Apple software platforms — iOS, OS X®, watchOS and tvOS™ — as well as for Linux. Components available include the Swift compiler, debugger, standard library, foundation libraries, package manager and REPL. Swift is licensed under the popular Apache 2.0 open source license with a runtime library exception, enabling users to easily incorporate Swift into their own software and port the language to new platforms. For more information about Swift, and access to community resources visit the new Swift.org.

*Based on RedMonk Programming Language Rankings, June 2015.

Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV. Apple's four software platforms — iOS, OS X, watchOS and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App -- For more information read the original article here.
Don't worry, Dragon's Lair fans, the proposed feature-length project is still happening -- but it won't be raising money on Kickstarter. Creators Don Bluth and Gary Goldman have cancelled their original crowdfunding campaign and will be relaunching i... -- For more information read the original article here.
Last month, Amazon removed all Apple TV and Chromecast product listings from its website because the devices do not offer its Prime Video streaming service, which the online retailer said may cause confusion for customers. Nearly a month later, the new Apple TV remains unavailable on Amazon, but that could soon change.


Amazon appears to have confirmed to engineer Dan Bostonweeks that it is developing a tvOS app for Prime Video that could launch before the end of 2015. "Hopefully, within a few weeks span, you will be able to see the Amazon Instant Video app feature on your Apple TV," the company purportedly said in an email.

I sent feedback to Amazon via the Amazon Instant Video iOS app about supporting tvOS. They say it's in development. pic.twitter.com/52fYUgtgNs

— Dan Bostonweeks (@danimal) November 28, 2015Apple was wrongly criticized by some in October for seemingly not allowing Prime Video on the new Apple TV, but shortly after the company provided a statement to BuzzFeed News emphasizing that “all are welcome” on the platform -- Amazon simply had not submitted a Prime Video app for the tvOS App Store.Apple tells BuzzFeed News that “all are welcome” on its new Apple TV platform. But Amazon — which recently purged Apple TV from its store — doesn't have a Prime Video app in the Apple TV App Store. And as of a few days ago, it hadn't submitted one.Amazon told BuzzFeed News it “doesn't have anything to share” on the topic at the time, but it now appears the company is actively developing a tvOS solution. Amazon Video allows Prime members to instantly stream tens of thousands of movies and TV episodes, with hundreds of thousands of titles available to buy or rent.

Amazon Video for iOS is free on the App Store and accessible by Amazon Prime members. The service is also available on Android, Fire OS, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii, Wii U, the web and select TV and Blu-ray players from LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and Vizio.

Related Roundup: Apple TV
Tags: App Store, Amazon, Amazon Prime Video, tvOS
Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Buy Now)
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On the heels of Time Warner Cable's streaming test for its internet customers, Comcast's Stream TV is live in the Boston area. That's if you're paying for Xfinity internet service, of course. Announced back in July, the service gives cord cutters w... -- For more information read the original article here.
There's no wrong way to cook bacon -- even if you don't cook it at all. Kentaro Fukushi, a Mathematical Science professor in Tokyo, Japan recently proved as much to Munchies. He, along with his partner, Hiroshi Takai of The Garage Lab maker space,... -- For more information read the original article here.
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