Lowe’s, a home improvement retailer, is planning on introducing the LoweBot to 11 stores in the San Francisco area starting in September. The LoweBot is an autonomous retail service robot that has the ability to lead customers to a door hinge or screw, as well as the ability to scan inventory in the store. Could this mean the end to human workers in large retail stores? Not necessarily, Lowe’s is testing the waters with the retail robot to see if humans like the new technology. Anyone that has spent 30 minutes looking for a Phillips-Head Screwdriver will be hugging these robots. (Source: CNET)
Snapchat’s Augmented Reality Glasses
Snapchat’s augmented reality glasses have been a thing in the making for quite a while, but the concept may have finally become reality as their CEO Evan Spiegel was caught wearing said glasses in public. The glasses are rumored to connect to your phone via Bluetooth. As many know, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is fascinated with augmented and virtual reality. Facebook-owned Instagram recently launched “stories,” a direct attack on Snapchat’s “My Story.” Consider this recent move by Snapchat as an adult version of anything you can do I can do better. Reminder that augmented reality became a big deal with Pokémon Go. (Source: Mashable)
Facebook Privacy Policy
In recent changes to Facebook’s privacy policy, your personal information can be uploaded or shared on Facebook. First, Facebook will tap into your phone contacts to make recommended friend suggestions. If this is too much sharing for you, then go to Privacy Shortcuts > More Settings > General > Upload Contacts and select disable. Secondly, if you have WhatsApp, the app can share data with Facebook. In 2014, the messaging app was bought by Facebook for a cool $19 billion and recently announced that data like your mobile carrier and how often you open the app will be shared with Facebook to determine what type of ads it shows you. To disable this in WhatsApp, go to Settings > Account > Share my account info (if you do not see this option, then you have already opted out of sharing account information). Finally, Facebook shares your personal interests with outside websites. This feature also determines what type of ads you see on Facebook. Alter this at Facebook Ads > Ads on apps and websites off of the Facebook Companies then click “No.” (Source: BuzzFeed)
