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Assistant will be instantly compared to Apple's Siri, but the plan is to 'go beyond' Apple's iPhone 4S offering, by helping you make decisions, rather than simply serving-up information. TechCrunch sources say the voice-powered "do engine" is being developed by the Android team and will be powered by Google's own search engine, Google +1 and the Google+ social network.

"To accomplish the 5.9 percent error rate, which beats a 6.3 percent record set just last month, the Microsoft team leveraged neural language models resembling associative word clouds. That is, a word like "fast" resides much closer to "fast" than it does to "slow". This allowed the speech recognition engine to generalize between words and better recognize them in context. "

"Walmart began recruiting top Silicon Valley talent and acquiring start-ups last year. For instance, Walmart acquired Kosmix, a company that specializes in making web design more seamless, for $300 million. That team has been working for over a year to fix Walmart's systems and improve its website.  Walmart is investing in the "social gifting" market. A year ago, Walmart launched "Shopycat," which makes gift recommendations based on friends' Facebook profiles. The site is now called "Walmart Gifts" and allows customers to log in and get personalized recommendations based on Facebook and Twitter profiles.  The retailer got a better search engine. A dozen top engineers took 10 months to build it, and while the company won't discuss sales figures, they said the new system is more user-friendly. "If you search for cotton socks now, you'll actually find them," Manjoo writes.  Walmart is trying to lead the charge in same-day shipping. Its at an advantage considering that 96 percent of Americans live within 20 miles of a Walmart.  Walmart is investing like crazy in its mobile app. "Walmart imagines that as you go through an average day, you'll remember things you need--milk, bread, a new tennis racquet, a toy truck for your nephew's birthday--and tell the voice-enabled Walmart app. The app will list each item's location inside your local Walmart and include product info; eventually, it will also learn your preferences and offer recommendations. And once you're actually in the store, you'll be able to summon an associate to help you," Manjoo says. "

We've seen numerous mobile apps designed to improve drivers' safety on the road, but Automatic takes what may well be the most comprehensive approach to date. With the help of a small device that plugs into the car, the Automatic app monitors that car's health, makes money-saving driving tips, remembers where the car is parked and more. Users begin by plugging the Automatic Link device into their car's data port; it supports every gasoline-engine car made since 1996, its San Francisco-based maker says. Once that's done, the car and smartphone will automatically connect wirelessly whenever the user takes a trip. Among the services Automatic provides along the way are driving suggestions for better fuel efficiency, trip timelines including miles per gallon, and automatic crash detection as well as sending alerts to 911 and loved ones. Also available are engine-health monitoring and parking reminders. Pricing is USD 69.95. The video below explains the premise in more detail:

Participants were shown the main web search results pane of both Bing and Google for 10 search queries of their choice. Bing and Google search results were shown side-by-side on one page for easy comparison - with all branding removed from both search engines. at the end of 5 searches it will tell you which search engine you prefer

"Here are five lessons in the art and science of storytelling I learned by studying the pros ... 1) Adopt a newsroom mentality Make content development a core part of the way you do business - just as it is in journalism. Embed it in every department. Hire journalists just as LinkedIn, Qualcomm and others have done. Curate voices like we do on edelman.com. 2) Hand-craft your content for each venue Some companies try desperately to create singular pieces of content that can be simply be dumped in different places. That no longer works. Instead, hand-craft your content for each venue. Jonah Peretti, Buzzfeed's co-founder, summed it up best when he said: "Twitter is for your head, while Facebook is for your heart." 3) Cultivate superstars who have a POV News and information, to some degree, is commodity content - it's everywhere. Deep, thoughtful analysis, however, is in high demand. Just as the New York Times has Nate Silver and ESPN has Bill SImmons, you too can grow and cultivate rock stars who create thoughtful content with unique analytical point of view. 4) Be relentlessly data driven Speaking of Mr. Silver, if there's one thing he taught us this year it's that data rules. Follow in his footsteps in not only how you use data to inform and deliver your storytelling but also in how you measure your results. Many newsrooms, for example, now have real-time dashboards that help shape their decisions. 5) Let constraints fuel creativity Finally, it's often hard to convince management to put resources behind content until there's proven ROI. However, constraints can breed creativity. The Wall Street Journal's daytime video network, for example, was challenged to cover the Olympics without footage. So instead it creatively turned to using puppetry - and with great success. Be creative to get around constraints."

 Volkswagen's Start-Stop engine technology, through a Google Chrome Store App, using facial recognition technology to detect when someone looks at or away from the screen. This is linked through the app to YouTube, so that any video you are watching automatically pauses if you look away from the screen! 

Shopping.com, is rebranding as the eBay Commerce Network. The move marks the site's transformation from shopping comparison engine to ecommerce advertising platform, where scale is the goal.

"Viewers will not only be able to click on clothes and accessories to browse color options in real-time, they'll also be able to change the music, download the show soundtrack from iTunes, snap screenshots to share instantly on Facebook (a feature that was developed with in-house Facebook engineers), cut and share video clips, and order looks and makeup appearing on the catwalk."

App has driving courses, video interviews with designers and engineers, AR feature that shows 3D model of new Fusion whent he app is pointed at a Ford logo