Consumer & Gadgets news

Consumer & Gadgets

What influences trust when conversing with chatbots?

Whether on your bank's website or your telephone provider's help line, interactions between humans and chatbots have become part of our daily lives. But do we trust them? And what factors influence our trust? Researchers ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Video game play gets frisky at CES gadget gala

Video game play met romantic intimacy in a corner of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on Thursday—but it hasn't always been smooth sailing for sex toys at the Las Vegas gadget extravaganza.

Consumer & Gadgets

The 'Worst in Show' CES products put your data at risk and cause waste, privacy advocates say

So much of the technology showcased at CES includes gadgets made to improve consumers' lives—whether by leveraging AI to make devices that help people become more efficient, by creating companions to cure loneliness or ...

Consumer & Gadgets

A smart ring with a tiny camera lets users point and click to control home devices

While smart devices in homes have grown to include speakers, security systems, lights and thermostats, the ways to control them have remained relatively stable. Users can interact with a phone, or talk to the tech, but these ...

Consumer & Gadgets

TVs get smarter as makers cater to AI lifestyles

Dazzling televisions that routinely star at the Consumer Electronics Show opening here Tuesday are getting ever smarter with an eye toward being at the heart of AI-centered lifestyles.

Consumer & Gadgets

Homes talk and tables walk at AI dominated CES

Home appliances that do chores, cars that know your favorite cafe, and robot pets aiming to please are among artficial intelligence-infused offerings at the Consumer Electronics Show opening Tuesday.

Consumer & Gadgets

Seven advances in technology that we're likely to see in 2025

In the grand scheme of things, 45 years is not a long time. Back in 1980, it would take me three weeks to run a computer program, written in the programming language Cobol, that worked using punched cards. Each card represented ...

Consumer & Gadgets

EU universal charger rules come into force

EU rules requiring all new smartphones, tablets and cameras to use the same charger came into force on Saturday, in a change Brussels said will cut costs and waste.

Consumer & Gadgets

Why is it so hard to type in Indigenous languages?

When it comes to digital access and internet technologies, some languages are still more equal than others. Speakers of majority languages, who type in English or text in Korean, assume their message will be transmitted accurately. ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Bias in AI amplifies our own biases, finds study

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems tend to take on human biases and amplify them, causing people who use that AI to become more biased themselves, finds a new study by UCL researchers.

Consumer & Gadgets

Vulnerability in virtual reality systems identified

A team of computer scientists at the University of Chicago has uncovered a potential vulnerability in virtual reality systems—one that could allow a hacker to insert what the team describes as an "inception layer" between ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Apple's 'Walled Garden' under fire in lawsuit

Call it a "walled garden" or an ecosystem, but at the heart of Thursday's blockbuster US lawsuit against Apple are the many ways the company gets customers to remain faithful to its products.

Consumer & Gadgets

Children may overestimate smart speakers' abilities

Children overrate the intelligence of smart speakers—such as Alexa, Siri, or Google Home—and are uncertain if the systems can think like humans or not, research suggests.

Consumer & Gadgets

Does TikTok pose a security threat to Canadians?

Concerns about the threats TikTok poses to privacy and liberty were raised again, as a bill to divest TikTok of its Chinese ownership or ban it gathered steam in the United States Congress. And Canada's federal government ...