Consumer & Gadgets news

Consumer & Gadgets

Beyond step counting: Wearable tech promises medical-grade data

Wearable devices have come a long way from counting steps or heartbeats, with new tech offering the ability to track blood oxygenation, glucose levels and blood pressure, though its reliability remains a matter of debate.

Consumer & Gadgets

CES tech looks to help world's aging population

From an adorable robot puppy that soothes dementia patients to an in-toilet gadget for testing urine, tech at CES caters to seniors around the world.

Consumer & Gadgets

How generative AI is transforming financial services—and what it means for customers

Generative AI, including platforms like ChatGPT, is transforming industries by making processes simpler, more efficient and easier to interact with. However, in the heavily regulated financial services sector the benefits ...

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

Q&A: How AI affects kids' creativity

Shortly after artificial intelligence models, including Midjourney and OpenAI's Dall-E went public, AI-generated art started winning competitions: one in digital art, another in photography. Concern rumbled that AI could ...

Consumer & Gadgets

'Ring' has a new mission: 'Hey, there's raccoons in my backyard'

For years, "Ring" touted its crime-fighting bona fides, selling smart doorbells that let homeowners remotely monitor their residences—and sometimes share what they recorded with local police. Now the Amazon.com Inc. unit ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Gamers say they hate 'smurfing,' but admit they do it

Online video game players believe the behavior known as "smurfing" is generally wrong and toxic to the gaming community—but most admit to doing it and say some reasons make the behavior less blameworthy, new research finds.

Consumer & Gadgets

Microsoft unveils 'AI-ready' PCs

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella unveiled a new category of PC on Monday that features generative artificial intelligence tools built directly into Windows, the company's world leading operating system.

Consumer & Gadgets

All wound up: A clearer look at electric guitar pickups

The electric guitar has been a core element of popular music for much of the past century. Pickups are the components that turn vibrations from the strings into electricity for sound and can be seen as the "heart" of the ...