Artificial Intelligence

Milwaukee – An organized crime syndicate based in Russia has reportedly obtained 1.2 billion passwords and 500 million email addresses from consumers across the globe. According to a report from security research firm Hold Security, the user information has been stolen from 420,000 Internet sites.

Sites range in all sizes and include sites for small businesses and individuals as well as major global companies. Hold Security would not identify any specific companies or industries that were targeted.

Once again a move by our innovative friends at Amazon.com has prompted me to write a Tech Bytes column. Amazon’s latest interesting venture is the launch of an online marketplace for items created by 3D printer. Currently, the online 3D printed products store includes more than 200 items in categories such as jewelry, toys, home décor and fashion accessories. The new store will feature design templates for product individualization and 3D preview capability.

Mountain View, Calif. – Google Inc. has unveiled its expanded office in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The 300,000-sq.-ft. campus, in the Kendall Square neighborhood, combines space in three buildings previously occupied by Google into one connected campus with a combined 12 floors of office and work space.

The office spreads across one whole building and parts of the other two. It features a public rooftop garden, and a private one for Google employees, along with an employee café offering free meals.

San Mateo, Calif. - Feedzai, a data science company that uses real-time, machine-based learning to analyze Big Data to prevent fraud, has developed e-commerce apps for the Shopify and Big Commerce platforms. The Feedzai apps on Shopify and Big Commerce provide online retailers with real-time information to determine the legitimacy of an order.

Dallas – The global Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL) market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.03% during the period 2013-2018. According to a new report from Sandler Research, one of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the reduction in labor costs.

The global Electronic Shelf Labels market has also been witnessing the increasing demand for ESL by retail stores. However, Sandler Research advises the increasing competition among vendors could pose a challenge to the growth of this market.

New York -- Epson, a leading supplier of value-added point-of-sale (POS) solutions, and Mobivity Holdings Corp., a provider of retail customer engagement and marketing technologies, have entered into a partnership to transform receipts from transactional to actionable.
 

Seattle – Consumers like the Firefly feature that lets users of the Amazon Fire phone scan objects to obtain information and perform instant purchase on Amazon.com, but not enough to switch from their current phones to Amazon Fire. According to a survey of 53 consumers from UserTesting, 84% chose Firefly as their number one or two favorite feature of Amazon Fire.