Tag Archives: technology

NBC News reports: President Joe Biden signed a wide-ranging executive order on artificial intelligence Monday, setting the stage for some industry regulations and funding for the U.S. government to further invest in the technology. The order is broad, and its focuses range from civil rights and industry regulations to a government hiring spree. In a media call previewing the order …

The Digital Bits reports: The Digital Bits has learned from industry sources—and we’ve confirmed it with multiple sources now—that Best Buy plans to exit the physical media business for good next year, possibly as soon as the end of Q1 2024. This includes not just their in-store Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD sales, which the retailer has been gradually …

Engadget reports: Since 2012, Yelp has caught nearly 5,000 businesses engaging in shady tactics, like paying customers for favorable ratings or hiring people to write phony reviews. Now, the company has a new tool to help people — and maybe the feds — track businesses that have tried to manipulate their standing on the review platform. Yelp is releasing a …

The New York Daily News reports: Google is being sued by the family of a North Carolina man who drowned after he drove off a collapsed bridge while following outdated directions from the Maps app. Philip Paxson was driving home from his daughter’s birthday party on Sept. 30, 2022 when his car plunged into Snow Creek in Hickory — about …

The Associated Press reports: Apple released a significant security update for iPhones and iPads Thursday to patch newly discovered security vulnerabilities in the devices’ system software. The issue was discovered by researchers at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, who said the software flaw was being “actively exploited” to deliver commercial spyware called Pegasus developed and sold by the Israeli …

Bloomberg News reports: Apple is set to shift its iPhone charging port from Lightning to USB-C after pushing back on such a change for years. If Apple Inc. had its way, the iPhone would continue to use the current Lightning connector for the next few years — until the point when the company is ready to begin phasing out ports …

ABC News reports: Amazon is bringing its pay-by-palm technology to Whole Foods stores. The company announced Thursday that its Amazon One palm recognition system will soon be in more than 500 Whole Foods stores by the end of the year. Amazon rolled out the technology in 2020, and it is currently available in more than 200 Whole Foods stores nationwide. …

The Associated Press reports: Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and other companies that are leading the development of artificial intelligence technology have agreed to meet a set of AI safeguards brokered by President Joe Biden’s administration. The White House said Friday that it has secured voluntary commitments from seven U.S. companies meant to ensure their AI products are safe before they …

The Verge reports: The free TV company Telly has started shipping its ad-supported TVs to its first wave of customers. Telly first opened its waitlist in May and plans on shipping 500,000 free TVs to customers by the end of 2023 — and “millions more” in 2024. Unlike most TVs, beneath Telly’s 55-inch 4K display is a smaller screen separated …

Reuters reports: Robots presented at an AI forum said on Friday they expected to increase in number and help solve global problems, and would not steal humans’ jobs or rebel against us. The nine humanoid robots gathered at the ‘AI for Good’ conference in Geneva, where organisers are seeking to make the case for artificial intelligence and the robots it …

The Associated Press reports: The Recording Academy announced a series of changes to the Grammy Awards to better reflect an evolving music industry. Of those newly instituted guidelines, protocols involving technological advancements in machine learning sparked headlines: “Only human creators” could win the music industry’s highest honor in a decision aimed at the use of artificial intelligence in popular music. …

The Associated Press reports: Apple became the first publicly traded company to close a trading day with a $3 trillion market value, marking another milestone for a technology juggernaut that has reshaped society with a line-up of products that churn out eye-popping profits. Apple shares closed up 2.3% at $193.97 Friday, bringing its market value to $3.04 trillion. Apple is …

The Washington Post reports: About 73 percent of American adults lived in a household without a landline at the end of last year — a figure that has tripled since 2010. The latest survey shows that landlines are far more common among homeowners (34 percent have them) than among renters (15 percent), while Hispanic Americans (20 percent) are less likely …

As I’ve noted for the last week in the comments of some JMG posts, at some point today we’ll go offline while our hosting service physically moves our standalone server to a new facility near downtown Los Angeles. The downtime will allegedly last no longer than four hours and could be much shorter. But unfortunately, we won’t get a heads …

Reuters reports: Apple Inc unveiled an augmented-reality headset called the Apple Vision Pro at its annual software developer conference on Monday, its first big move into a new product category since the introduction of the Apple Watch nine years ago. The headset launch will see Apple test a market crowded with devices that have yet to gain traction with consumers …

The Washington Post reports: Automakers, such as BMW, Volkswagen, Mazda and Tesla, are removing AM radios from new electric vehicles because electric engines can interfere with the sound of AM stations. And Ford, one of the nation’s top-three auto sellers, is taking a bigger step, eliminating AM from all of its vehicles, electric or gas-operated. Some station owners and advertisers …

Axios reports: As stores and restaurants attempt to go cashless, they’re installing “reverse ATMs” that dispense stored-value cards in exchange for greenbacks. More businesses are eschewing cash — a trend accelerated by the pandemic — but states and cities are passing laws banning them from doing so, in deference to people who don’t have bank accounts or credit cards. Reverse …

Axios reports: In a worldwide push called “Sunrise 2027,” the retail industry is transitioning from the standard 12-digit barcode — that square of vertical lines that’s printed on a package and makes it go “beep” at the checkout scanner — to a two-dimensional web-enabled version. The effort is being orchestrated by GS1 US, the nonprofit standards organization that oversees the …

Axios reports: The first commercially available human-shaped robots designed for warehouse work were unveiled last week by a company called Agility Robotics, for delivery in 2025. Digit, which is built to work alongside humans, can lift and move plastic bins in a warehouse or distribution center. Fully self-charging, Digit — who is a slim 5’9″ and 140 pounds — will …

CNBC reports: The FBI has warned consumers against using free public charging stations, saying crooks have managed to hijack public chargers that can infect devices with malware, or software that can give hackers access to your phone, tablet or computer. The Federal Communications Commission has also warned about “juice jacking,” as the malware loading scheme is known, since 2021. Consumer …