Meet the Amazon Echo, a speaker with a built-in virtual assistant

The virtual assistant in your phone is now something that's expected rather than an extra feature, and while they have their uses they still aren't perfect and take a bit of effort to use. Amazon Echo is a different approach, its a virtual assistant that's supposed to be talked to like a real person --…

Ofcom will auction off more 4G spectrum next year

4G coverage in the UK may be expanding all the time, with networks trying cover as many people as possible, but Ofcom isn't planning on leaving that expansion solely up to them. Instead the regulator is going to auction off more 4G spectrum. The auction will take place sometime next year, giving mobile networks the opportunity…

Scientists confirm that women can smell better than men

Don’t worry ladies: we might not be getting paid at the same level as men, but there is one thing we can feel smug about. Scientists have just confirmed that we can smell better than the opposite sex. For years, women have been outperforming men on odour-perception tests but scientists weren’t sure why that was.…

The Galaxy Note 5 could have a ridiculously high 4K resolution display

I'm sure none of us had any doubt that Samsung would be starting work on a Galaxy Note 5 that will presumably be released in around 12 months time. Well that phone might have one killer feature: a 4K resolution display. A source apparently told Phone Arena that the display will have a resolution of…

EE has launched EE TV for its broadband customers

If you're an EE broadband customer paying over £9.95 a month then you're in luck, because EE has launched its EE TV service for you to use free of charge. The hardware itself is supposedly worth over £300 and gives customers access to 70 Freeview channels, catch-up and on-demand services, as well as over 10,000 TV…

Love makes us mean, say researchers

Researchers from University at Buffalo in New York State say that being in love (or loving someone in general, or even just having a vague connection to them) can make us mean. But not to the person we care about: to everyone else. We’re far less likely to be compassionate and empathetic in a situation…

Apparrently Spotify earns musicians more money than iTunes in Europe

If you go out and ask musicians what they think about Spotify then they may not have very nice things to say. It's no secret that Spotify doesn't pay very much in the way of royalties each time a song is listened to, yet its managed to earn musicians more money than iTunes. Or at…

A new system learns your smartphone habits to thwart thieves

Scottish computer scientists have developed a new system that stops your phone from working if someone else steals it and tries to take it over. (So BACK OFF, thieves.) As New Scientist reports, it was invented by a team from Glasgow Caledonian University, and works using software that tracks your smartphone habits, including which cell…