Consumer & Gadgets news

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

AI can't do your Christmas shopping just yet—but next year might be different

I'm a computer scientist and a bad Christmas shopper. Over the weekend, I wondered whether AI systems might be able to help me out.

Consumer & Gadgets

Study reveals AI chatbots can detect race, but racial bias reduces response empathy

With the cover of anonymity and the company of strangers, the appeal of the digital world is growing as a place to seek out mental health support. This phenomenon is buoyed by the fact that more than 150 million people in ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Christmas in the metaverse: Why the festive season is moving into virtual worlds

The metaverse is the next frontier in digital evolution and consists of digital spaces where people socialize, play, learn and spend money.

Consumer & Gadgets

New tool makes micro:bit programming portable for young learners

A new coding tool will help make it easier for children to portably program a popular educational micro-computer on the fly. Researchers from Lancaster University's School of Computing and Communications working in partnership ...

Consumer & Gadgets

PlayStation: Fun facts to know as Sony's console turns 30

Since 1994, PlayStation's five consoles have changed video game history. From the development of the controller to scuffles at stores to Saddam Hussein's military, here are five interesting things to know:

Consumer & Gadgets

New earplug can protect hearing while preserving sound quality

Hearing loss is irreversible and the most common work-related injury worldwide. Prevention is the only way to tackle this issue. But who has not been annoyed by how foam earplugs make a rock concert sound muffled and bass-heavy? ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Study explores the impact of LLMs on human creativity

Large language models (LLMs), AI systems that can process human language and generate new texts in response to written prompts, are now widely used by people worldwide to complete various tasks. These systems can be used ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Health monitoring devices at risk of being hacked, study shows

Billions of people around the world are using internet-connected medical devices to monitor their health, but could be putting themselves at risk of hackers using their data for unhealthy reasons, according to a new cybersecurity ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Can you feel sorry for a robot? Research indicates you can

A pitiful sound from tinny speakers, sad virtual eyes, trembling robot arms: It doesn't take much to feel sorry for a robot. This is the conclusion of a study by Marieke Wieringa, who will be defending her Ph.D. thesis at ...