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

Smart devices' ambient light sensors pose imaging privacy risk

In George Orwell's novel "1984," Big Brother watches citizens through two-way, TV-like telescreens to surveil citizens without any cameras. In a similar fashion, our current smart devices contain ambient light sensors, which ...

Consumer & Gadgets

New tech addresses augmented reality's privacy problem

An emergency room doctor using augmented reality could save precious seconds by quickly checking a patient's vitals or records. But the doctor could also unintentionally pull information for someone else in the room, breaching ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Apple hit again with US ban in watch patent feud

A federal appeals court on Wednesday ordered Apple to halt US sales of its latest smartwatch models as part of a patent feud with health company Masimo.

Consumer & Gadgets

Wearable tech aiming to level up life: CES highlights

Turning on the TV with a wink, skiing on a city street—the once unimaginable was possible this week at CES, the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, thanks to wearable tech innovations.

Consumer & Gadgets

Tech innovations that caught our eye at CES 2024

From electric cars to transparent TVs to the latest accessibility tech and virtual assistants backed by artificial intelligence, there was a wide range of innovations on display at the CES tech show in Las Vegas this week. ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Women's health on show, a little, at CES

Among the more than 3,500 booths at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, only a few focus exclusively on women's health, including a cervical cancer screening device and a wristband to anticipate hot flushes.

Consumer & Gadgets

E-bike craze in high gear at CES gadget fest

Electric bicycle makers at CES touted slick features like ChatGPT as they rode a trend of people wanting to enjoy a breeze in their face without sweat on their brow.

Consumer & Gadgets

Buzz, bump, goal! Drone soccer aims high at CES

A loud whirring sound incites fear that a giant swarm of insects has overtaken Eureka Park, one of the venues for the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. But in fact, it's a group of "soccer drones" made in South Korea.

Consumer & Gadgets

Study explores how we interact with remote drivers

Newcastle University research is helping shed light on the important interaction between users and remote drivers that oversee the operation of automated vehicles.