Learning and listening in Amazonia
In the town of Alter do Chão, where my professor lived, traditional Paraense carimbó music dominated everyone’s social lives. As an undergraduate who was double-majoring in music, I decided to join the town’s major carimbó group, Grupo Cobra Grande. Despite my rudimentary grasp of Portuguese, I knew that I could communicate with the group through […]
Tim Cook says Apple will ‘break new ground’ in GenAI this year
Apple CEO Tim Cook is promising that Apple will “break new ground” on GenAI this year. Cook made the pronouncement during the company’s annual shareholders meeting today, which came in the same week the company reportedly scuttled its multibillion-dollar, decade-long plan to build an EV. Some of the staff on the EV project were reassigned […]
When to use ChatGPT, Gemini AI chatbots, and when you shouldn’t
An objective and ultimate source of truth — especially one that’s free and hosted on the internet — sounds pretty nice. Unfortunately, “generative AI” from OpenAI, Google or Microsoft won’t fit the bill. Last week, Google pulled access to its Gemini image generator after the tool spit out images of a female pope and a […]
Upgrade Your Phone Case and Get a Free Screen Protector With This Exclusive Deal
We use our devices to text, call, steam, play games, scroll the web and more. That’s why investing in a protective case to keep your phone safe from damage is a good idea. Right now CNET readers can score a free tempered glass screen protector with your purchase of any Scooch case, including the Wingman, […]
Microsoft Word’s Subtle Typeface Change Affected Millions. Did You Notice?
When you read — a book, a traffic sign, a billboard, this article — how much do you really notice the letters? If you’re like most people, the answer is probably not at all. But even if you don’t really notice them, you might sense it if something has subtly changed. That’s a feeling some […]
Self-Destructing Circuits and More Security Schemes
Last week at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), researchers introduced several technologies to fight even the sneakiest hack attacks. Engineers invented a way to detect a hacker placing a probe on the circuit board to attempt to read digital traffic in a computer. Other researchers invented new ways to obfuscate electromagnetic emissions radiating from […]
The Disney Imagineer Building You a Real-Life Holodeck
Though ideas at Disney aren’t always developed in a linear fashion—a prototype of an invention might be started years before the company finds the place to put it into action, or an idea for something artistically cool might germinate for a bit before Research figures out the technology—Smoot has worked on a few things with […]