Consumer & Gadgets news
Consumer & Gadgets
AI companions can comfort lonely users but may deepen distress over time
AI companions are always available, never judge, never tire and never demand anything in return. If someone is struggling with loneliness, this frictionlessness can seem profoundly appealing. However, new research shows that ...
8 hours ago
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Consumer & Gadgets
Q&A: A better design of social media platforms instead of blanket bans for young people
US courts have ruled against platform providers for failing to protect children, and the debate over age restrictions for social media has gained momentum. An international group of experts from academia, children's rights ...
Apr 2, 2026
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Do TV ads work? Ask smart TVs
Despite the hype about streaming services, traditional broadcast television still dominates advertising dollars. This year, advertisers will spend $139 billion on "linear" TV—where viewers watch programs at scheduled times—compared ...
Apr 2, 2026
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New app designed to improve conference experience
A new app developed by Yun Huang, associate professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, aims to make navigating conferences less work and more fun, so that attendees can ...
Apr 2, 2026
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Apple's 50-year odyssey has redefined technology, pop culture and comeback stories
A scrawny hippie and a nerdy engineer who became prank-playing friends vowed to change the world when they founded a Silicon Valley startup on April Fools' Day 50 years ago and then—no joke—pulled it off.
Apr 1, 2026
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Internet
Popular kids' apps use deceptive tactics to draw users to paid content, study shows
A QUT study of 20 popular paid and free apps for children aged 5 to 8 years found that most contained deceptive design patterns aimed at attracting children to paid content, increasing their time spent using the app, or encouraging ...
Mar 31, 2026
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Consumer & Gadgets
New technique turns everyday surfaces like walls and desks into touch panels
Augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) headsets let us see the world around us with virtual elements superimposed on top. For example, many modern AR/MR headsets use hand-tracking cameras to detect hand gestures in ...
Mar 30, 2026
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Consumer & Gadgets
Apple at 50: Eight technology leaps that changed our world
In the early 1970s, the idea of an ordinary person owning a computer sounded absurd. Computers back then were more like aircraft carriers or nuclear power plants than household appliances—vast machines housed in data centers ...
Mar 30, 2026
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Consumer & Gadgets
Five Apple anecdotes as iPhone maker marks 50 years
iPhone maker Apple celebrates its 50th anniversary on April 1 having marked pop culture and the tech industry like few other firms since its beginnings in 1976.
Mar 29, 2026
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Consumer & Gadgets
Nvidia's new AI tool is giving female game characters a makeover—and gamers are pushing back
Last week leading chipmaker Nvidia announced DLSS-5 (Deep Learning Super Sampling), a new artificial intelligence (AI) rendering tool it describes as a "breakthrough in visual fidelity for games." The software takes low-resolution ...
Mar 27, 2026
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Consumer & Gadgets
Verdicts against Meta, YouTube could be a turning point, expert says
A landmark California verdict that found the social media company Meta and video-sharing service YouTube liable for the depression and mental health challenges of a young woman could be "the beginning of a tidal wave," a ...
Mar 27, 2026
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Consumer & Gadgets
AI overly affirms users asking for personal advice, study finds
In a new study published in Science, Stanford computer scientists showed that artificial intelligence large language models are overly agreeable, or sycophantic, when users solicit advice on interpersonal dilemmas. Even when ...
Mar 26, 2026
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Consumer & Gadgets
Asking AI to act like an expert can make it less reliable
To get the best out of AI, some users tell it to provide answers as if it were an expert. Others ask it to adopt a persona, such as a safety monitor, to guide its responses. However, this approach can sometimes hurt performance, ...
Consumer & Gadgets
When smell meets VR: Scent technology blends up to 8 fragrances for immersive virtual experiences
A multi-channel wearable scent display developed at Institute of Science Tokyo allows a user to experience multiple scents while exploring virtual environments. Based on virtual scenes, the device can blend up to eight fragrances ...
Mar 25, 2026
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Consumer & Gadgets
Fragmented phone use—not total screen time—is the main driver of information overload, study finds
Amid hot discussion on screen time, social media use and the impact of digital devices on our well-being, a seven-month study from Aalto University in Finland sheds new light on what overwhelms users the most—and the results ...
Mar 24, 2026
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Consumer & Gadgets
LLMs and creativity: AI responses show less variety than human ones
Can using a large language model (LLM) make a person more creative? Prior work has shown that using LLMs can make creative outputs more homogeneous, but this homogenization could stem from the specific LLM used or from widespread ...
Mar 24, 2026
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Internet
Dating app algorithms: What's love got to do with it?
Love is mysterious. You feel it in your chest, your knees, your soul. Love will put you on budget airplanes across the world, leave you hiding from your own phone after a sent text message or perhaps standing in the rain ...
Mar 24, 2026
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Consumer & Gadgets
US regulator blacklists all new foreign-made routers
The US Federal Communications Commission on Monday banned authorizations for all new consumer routers produced in foreign countries, citing "national security" reasons.
Mar 24, 2026
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Consumer & Gadgets
Using your AI chatbot as a search engine? Be careful what you believe
During the First World War, the British government was looking for ways to help people stretch their limited food supplies. It found pamphlets from a noted 19th-century herbalist who said rhubarb leaves could be used as a ...
Mar 23, 2026
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Consumer & Gadgets
TVs keep getting more pixels—but we are approaching the limits of what our eyes can actually see
I remember sitting very close to the television as a child and seeing the image was made up of tiny colored dots, each of which broke down into miniature vertical strips of red, green and blue when I looked even closer.
Mar 23, 2026
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Consumer & Gadgets
AI tools like ChatGPT make learning easier—and more persuasive, study finds
Googling isn't quite what it used to be. Now, when typing something into Google's search engine, the first response flashing to life on your screen is not the top-ranked search result but an "AI Overview." When asked why ...
Mar 21, 2026
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Consumer & Gadgets
How Instagram addictiveness lawsuit could reshape social media—platform design meets product liability
A Los Angeles courtroom is hosting what may become the most consequential legal challenge Big Tech has ever faced. This is an inflection point in the global debate over Big Tech liability: For the first time, an American ...
Mar 19, 2026
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Consumer & Gadgets
SoulMate LLM accelerator evolves according to the specific characteristics of the user
While large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are adept at answering countless questions, they often remain unaware of a user's minor habits or previous conversational contexts. This is why AI, despite being deeply integrated ...
Mar 18, 2026
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Consumer & Gadgets
AI chatbots' tendency to always agree may reinforce delusions in vulnerable users
The integration of large language model-based AI chatbots into multiple facets of our everyday lives has opened us up to advantages that would have been considered impossible even a decade ago. The same development has, however, ...
Consumer & Gadgets
With AI finishing your sentences, what will happen to your unique voice on the page?
It's a familiar feeling: You start a text message, and your phone's autocomplete function suggests several choices for the next word, ranging from banal to hilarious. "I love…" you, or coffee? Or you're finishing an email, ...
Mar 17, 2026
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